Golden Dawn
by princessofthescoundrels
Summary: We find our beloved characters in modern day Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and we learn how the modern world changes up the story. Lizzie/Darcy, Jane/Charlie, Charlotte/Collins.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! My name is Sara and I am very happy to meet you all! I'm writing this in the setting of my hometown, so it'll be pretty close to what it really is. I'm not quite sure how this'll work out, but I'm hoping it ends up being what I think it'll be. The problem with me is that I write like I'm from the Renaissance, but since it's modern I have to add dialogue that's from now. So please let me know how I'm doing.**

**Since P&P chapters are very short, I think that every one of my chapters will be two or three of hers.**

**I OWN NOTHING.**

The small, New England home was full of the familiar cries of happiness coming from the women of the household. There were six of these women to be exact, but only three of them were making noises similar to that of a dying seal. You see, these occupants of Cotuit in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, were about to have a new neighbor and Mrs. Bennet, along with her two youngest girls Kitty and Lydia, were enthused beyond belief. They giggled and twirled about the house, annoying everyone in sight. The reason for their excitement being that their new neighbor was a movie star, rich and handsome beyond all belief, and occupying the large mansion called Netherfield Park, a riverside house in Marstons Mills. Many of the owners in Cape Cod decided to name their houses, and the name of the Bennet household was Longbourn.

You see, Marstons Mills was only a five minute drive from their house, a perfect distance for annoying. Or at least that's what Mrs. Bennet thought. Cape Cod was once a peninsula until the Cape Cod Canal was built, and now it is called an island. Shaped like an arm with the only means of escape being either the Bourne Bridge or the Sagamore Bridge. It was no wonder that the people of this island took any news and changed it into something grand, for they had no excitement in their own lives. In the summer Cape Cod was bustling with tourists anxious to try out the beaches, the ice cream, the sailing and the overall quaintness of it all. During the fall and winter seasons, however, the year- round citizens strived for ways to keep themselves busy, gossip being a very familiar type. Cotuit and Marstons Mills were especially small towns so they all knew each other, and the chance for a new neighbor, especially one at the attentions of so many others from all around the world, was a very exciting concept.

The name of this exciting new neighbor was, of course, Mr. Charles Bingley the famed teenage movie star. He strove for a new life where cameras didn't haunt his days, so naturally he chose the most barren of places to finish his high school career. Sturgis Charter Public School, the number one school in Massachusetts, was known both for its national test scoring and for its misfits, the perfect place for a misunderstood movie star. The school was located on Main Street, Hyannis, and students took delight in wandering the streets of Hyannis for forty five minutes during lunch, among other things. You see, the reason why this school in particular was number one was the fact that it was part of the International Baccalaureate program, or IB. This was a worldwide program, and naturally the most difficult. It was only icing on the cake that all of the Bennet children happened to already be in this school.

You see, it was the greatest wish of Mrs. Bennet for her daughters to have at least one steady boyfriend before they went to college. Jane, the eldest, was a senior and nineteen years old. Next came Elizabeth, a junior and eighteen, then sophomore Mary, seventeen, and finally the freshmen twins, Kitty and Lydia, both sixteen. The IB program rarely accepted new students senior year due to the extensive academic program, however the Bingley family brought many new donations to the school and the chance to renovate a few bathrooms, along with gain a few more intelligent students, finally won the board over.

Mrs. Bennet had the immense confidence in her daughters that once Charles took one look at any one of her offspring he would fall madly in love with her. Therefore, most of Mrs. Bennet's morning was spent trying to convince Mr. Bennet to interact with the new family.

"My dear Mrs. Bennet," he told his wife impatiently for nearly the fiftieth time. "Not only is it impolite to barge in on a family we don't know, but it is also illogical."

"Is it so wrong to make friends with your neighbors before Mrs. Lucas does?" The Lucas' were neighbors of the Bennets and lived a few doors down. They were much poorer than the Bennets, but good friends nonetheless. Elizabeth was a childhood friend of their junior daughter, Charlotte.

"I would respect your opinion more if you didn't have an ulterior motive! We are not going to run over to the Bingley's and make a fool out of ourselves, and this is final!"

"Oh Mr. Bennet, why do you tease me?" asked Mrs. Bennet playfully and waved him away with a smile. "Everyone knows that rich men want a partner!"

"Yes, but you assume that he will choose one of our girls among the other hundreds he's already met!" Mr. Bennet protested. Mrs. Bennet claimed not to hear him so naturally, the rest of Mr. Bennet's morning was spent trying to avoid his wife to no avail.

The past two days were torture to those who really didn't care about the new arrival, namely Mr. Bennet, Jane and Elizabeth. With all of their mother's fussing it made it impossible to get any work done, and after a few more hours of teasing on Mr. Bennet's part, he finally gave up.

"God, be quiet! I've already met him!"

Mrs. Bennet looked like she was about to have a heart attack in that instant, and clapped her hands to her breast. "Why didn't you say so sooner, you evil man!"

He shrugged. "For the past two days you've never asked once if I'd already seen him, only if I go over to meet him. I met him yesterday on one of my long walks to get away from you!"

"And what did he say?" Mrs. Bennet's words were nearly drowned out by the giggling of the twins behind her.

"Nothing, besides the fact that he can't wait to meet all of you when school starts next week. He'll be going back to California to get his sister and his friend, but he'll be back soon."

This did the trick, and Mrs. Bennet was silent for the remainder of the week and spoke no more of Charles Bingley until a day before school started.

"Mother has been very excited the past few days," Jane commented to Elizabeth conversationally one night a few days before the beginning of school. They shared a room and at the moment were getting ready for bed. Elizabeth was brushing out her sister's hair and scowled as Jane brought up the subject.

"Don't even talk to me about her," Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "I love her, but honestly she's the worst gossiper I've ever met in my entire life. I couldn't care less about a celebrity coming to Cape Cod of all places. It's only a matter of time before he gets bored and leaves."

"Yes, that is what happens a lot, doesn't it?" Jane mused to herself and that was the end of Charles Bingley for the remainder of their vacation.

**Well, I think that's a nice introduction into their world, don't you think?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for all the responses! 3**

**The IB program requires three higher level courses, three standard level. One language, theory of knowledge (TOK), history, english, one science, and an artsy class. CAS are basically community service projects that are needed to be done every other week. IA's are standardized essays that are done in every class (almost like a research topic) and an EE is an extended essay that all seniors need to do to graduate.**

**This story will be updated every Friday! I actually have it completed, so… yeah! Enjoy!**

The remaining summer days passed by quickly and all the girls kept busy. The three youngest had kept all of their summer reading until the last minute so they had no time to enjoy the summer sun. Elizabeth and Jane however, had all the time in the world to walk or bike down to a beach and tan in the sun or swim in the glittering ocean. It was this time of the year that the girls loved most, and despite all of the tourists, being at the beach was rather pleasant. Jane was entering the worst year of the IB when the curriculum got more vigorous, so she treasured every moment of free time. Elizabeth would be going into her first year of the IB and wasn't quite sure how it was going to be, though she'd seen Jane struggle with it last year.

The two sisters were as different as can be, though far closer in temperament than the other three. Jane was quick to see the potential in others as well as the good and lived her life in yellows, pinks and spring colors, while Elizabeth was more realistic and used what she knew to judge others, and was far more likely to wear darker colors of blue, green and purple.

Jane chose yellow for her first day of school color, deciding on being professional. Elizabeth wore white shorts and a blue shirt for her first day, and she could get away with shorts for a few more weeks. Fall truly didn't start until the end of September, and the students always took advantage of the nice weather to show off their legs. Kitty and Lydia were dressing up as if they were going to a brunch with the Queen of England, even though they knew that hardly anyone would be impressed by their outfits on the very first day of High School.

"I'm going to wake up at four tomorrow to do my hair," Kitty bragged proudly the night before.

"Oh you think so? I'll wake up at three thirty, and I'll make myself look so much better than you in that half hour that you'll want to cry," Lydia teased back, though she fully planned on waking up at that time.

"You know our bus comes at seven twenty, right?" Jane reminded them gently. "And you're still not finished with any of your books, so you'll be up until twelve tonight anyway finishing them. You don't want to spend the first day of high school falling asleep on yourself."

Lydia merely waved her away, much like their mother had always to their father. "Don't worry, no one will notice me falling asleep when the rest of me looks so fabulous."

And so the twins spent the first day of school falling asleep at their desks, and no amount of makeup could hide the bags under their eyes. However, they were wearing the best clothes in their entire grade and were dubbed the most foolish girls of the class of 2015.

Elizabeth's first day was slightly better. Though her entire grade was giggling about Charles and the newcomers, Elizabeth and Charlotte didn't care too much and ignored them mostly, knowing enough that if they just ignored their classmates, eventually the news would become tiresome to them and die out.

Charles Bingley and his friends weren't there the very first day of school, and this left many of the single girls heartbroken. Their hearts were mended, however, when they went to advisory and were told by their teacher some very exciting news.

Elizabeth's advisor was a Latin teacher, and before he made his announcement he tripped over at least three chairs. "Well, it seems that for the first time in Sturgis history, we're about to have a homecoming!" the reactions coming from the girls drowned out any other noise he was making. Already gossip was forming and the halls were full of girls talking about dates, dresses, snacks, and seats.

Charlotte and Elizabeth were far more even tempered about the whole thing, talking in even tones instead of squeals. "Are you going to go?" Charlotte asked Elizabeth in the halls on the way to their higher level History class.

"Is that even a question? No doubt Lydia has told mother already, and in that case I'm required to go, even if she has to drag me by my hands and knees. I like dancing though, so it's not a problem."

"You going to bring anyone?"

"I don't think so. Besides, if I bring someone I'd have to grind with them, and you know how I feel about that."

"You don't have to," Charlotte shook her head. "Sturgis isn't like that."

"Stugis West is," Elizabeth pointed out. There were two schools that occupied main street, Sturgis West and Sturgis East. Though the head of the schools claimed there was no rivalry, there was obviously one. They pretty much fought because one was normal, Sturgis West, and the other wasn't, Sturgis East. The Bennet girls went to East.

"We aren't," Charlotte protested. "I'd be grateful if you didn't go with anyone though, because I'll just go by myself again."

"You don't know that," Lizzie protested distractedly. It was getting close to the beginning of class and Charlotte was in no rush. "Someone could still ask you."

"Relax Lizzie, we're juniors now. We can be a little late to class. Anyway, no one's asked me to go to anything, ever. You've at least gotten a few offers."

"Yeah, but they had about the appeal of asparagus." Charlotte could not counter this fact, and they went to class without another thought of boys.

The dance was close to the beginning of school, around two weeks after. Before Elizabeth knew it she was getting changed for the dance. She went shopping with Charlotte the weekend before and, as they had predicted, none of them had been asked.

"Now girls, keep them guessing," Mrs. Bennet told them on the drive over. Though both Lizzie, Jane and Mary could drive by now, it was through some strange maternal instinct that made Mrs. Bennet want to drive the girls to the dance.

It was at this event that the Bingleys decided to make their appearance, and what an appearance it was! The whole school was already dancing and having a good time before the double doors opened and Charles Bingley arrived. Bingley was of average height and had red hair and bright blue eyes.

"Who are the rest of them?" Lizzie whispered to Charlotte as the whole room quieted. Two other figures flanked Bingley, a male and a female. If there was a sour face in the room before the group came in, it was surpassed by this tall figure. And if there was a girl with a short skirt on in the room, the female's was surely shorter. The female was obviously Charles' relation because of the flaming red hair, but the strangers hair and eyes were so dark that he could not have been in the same family as them.

Charlotte confirmed Elizabeth's suspicions when she answered her question. "That there is Caroline Bingley, Charles' younger sister. She's in our grade and I heard she's an absolute bitch."

"Great," Lizzie whispered back sarcastically. "And who's the other guy, his body guard? He looks a lot older than eighteen."  
Charlotte shook her head. "He's not eighteen, he's nineteen. Name's William Darcy. Don't try to call him Will or he throws a fit. A child star used to getting whatever he wants and that's why he's so spoiled. He actually discovered Charles a few years ago, and that gave him his big break. They've been friends ever since."

"Why?" Elizabeth asked, incredulous. As the group walked awkwardly across the floor, Darcy looked like he'd rather be dead than at a school dance. "He seems like the worst man in the whole world."

Charlotte snickered. "His bank account says differently. He's not in the spotlight as much as before, but he's three times richer than Charles. Don't be surprised when, in a few weeks, people start to realize this and suddenly Darcy will be a God."

"He'd be handsome if he didn't look like he'd just run over his dog. His bank account had better be pretty significant to turn my head."

"Oh Lizzie..." Charlotte shook her head again and the music began again. "You'll never get a boyfriend if you're so picky."

"None of the boys I've met are intelligent enough for me," Lizzie countered and shrugged. "Come on, let's dance."

There was, by now, a growing crowd around the newcomers. Lizzie didn't think it was possible, but the impossible happened when Darcy's face went up several degrees more of unpleasantness at the prospect of being surrounded by squealing females. Darcy was able to dislodge himself from the group pretty quickly due to his natural unpleasant disposition, but Bingley was too polite to ignore the attentions of his classmates and allowed himself to be smothered by the crowd.

It was a good twenty minutes later when they heard his voice calling loudly over the numerous chanting his name. "Ladies, I have to go to the bathroom! You can't follow me in there!" He spoke slowly, just to get his point across. Lizzie thought with an amused smile that some fan must have followed him to the bathroom at some point for him to be so condescending now.

This was a tactic that popular Jane often used to get some free time, and had used only a minute before. It was in this manner that Charles Bingley made his escape. After some time, the gathering crowd surrounding the bathroom dispersed and began to dance again, though keeping one eye at the door.

"Like wolves, aren't they?" Charlotte laughed at her classmates that were making fools of themselves.

"Yeah," Elizabeth grinned. She then nodded her head at Darcy and Caroline. "Can't wait to have classes with those two."

"We'd only have classes with Caroline."

"Ugh," Lizzie groaned. "I'd rather be stuck with Mr. Sourpuss, at least he looks like he doesn't talk much."

Out of the corner of her eye Lizzie saw both her sister and Bingley come out of the bathroom at once and bump into each other. The room was too loud for Elizabeth to hear her sisters "I'm sorry" but saw her mouth form the words before they got a good look at one another. They comically gaped at the other, and Lizzie let out a joyous laugh. "Looks like mother was right. One look was all it took!"

Charlotte nodded her agreement. "She's easily the prettiest one in the room, and now seems like a good of a time as any to introduce ourselves to Charles before the other wolves get to him."

It seems that the other Bennet girls had the same idea, and they all made a protective ring around the two to keep them from the female wolves.  
"I'm really sorry about that, uh, what's your name?" he asked in a rushed and fascinated voice.

Elizabeth wagered that her sisters blush was the color of an emergency beacon by this time, and was amused at her embarrassed hesitation. "I'm Jane, and these are my sisters Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia. Oh, and my neighbor Charlotte."

"Nice to meet you all," he murmured but his eyes never left Jane's face. "Do you want to dance?" His words were a jumbled flow of letters and Jane had to concentrate to understand what he was saying.

It took her a moment, but it finally registered. "Oh, sure! Er, Charles."

"Call me Charlie," he grinned at her and led her to the dance floor. The students of the school weren't the only ones stunned, the remainder of his party did a double take when they saw Charlie lead Jane on the floor.

"Looks like Mr. Grumpypants can show more than one emotion!" Charlotte teased, mock impressed.

"Yeah, extreme boredom and terror," Elizabeth rolled her eyes and went back to the dance floor with Charlotte.

It was a few more dances before Jane and Charlie took a break, and when they did they were immediately engulfed by Darcy and Caroline. Elizabeth saw this and excused herself from Charlotte to investigate. The two parted ways for a while as Jane was called over by her friends, who were giggling incessantly. The Bingley party was situated right next to the snack counter, so Lizzie pretended to fix herself a drink as they talked. They were all soft speakers, so Elizabeth had to strain to hear.

"What are you doing, Charlie?" Caroline asked him bossily, tossing her long hair over her shoulders in the way that only annoying girls can.

"She's a nice girl, Caroline! You could learn a few things by talking with her yourself!" Charlie protested, and Caroline took him up on his unspoken challenge by strutting over to Jane's group and barging in on the conversation.

Elizabeth knew that sweet Jane would overlook Caroline's rude behavior and dismiss it as bravery, Caroline would find no fault in her sister during this conversation so Elizabeth so no usefulness in listening in to them, and instead diverted her ears to the two men.

"The first girl you talked to Charlie, the very first one!" For a brief moment Elizabeth thought Darcy had a nice voice, deep but soothing to the ears. That was until the meaning of his words sunk in and she scowled at his impertinence.

"You're just jealous, Darcy. You need to find yourself a nice girl to dance with. Elizabeth, her sister. She looked nice and attractive."

"Her?" Darcy scowled. "You've found yourself the only pretty girl in the entire room, and one that smiles far too much to be sincere." Elizabeth found herself more insulted by the crude remark to her sister, who was practically perfect in every way, than by the insult directed to her.

Elizabeth decided that she'd heard enough and stormed her way back to Charlotte to relay everything she'd learned to her friend. Before she was halfway there, however, she had already decided that he was the worst man she'd ever had the misfortune to meet. "He called me ugly," she told Charlotte dully, her self-confidence already taken a turn for the worse.

"Who, Bingley?!" Charlotte was shocked and looked like she was about to storm over and give Mr. Charles Bingley a piece of her mind.

"No, Darcy. And not ugly, just tolerable."

"Oh, well, I guess that's Darcy for you," Charlotte told her friend sympathetically, then saw Jane coming towards them.

"I just had the greatest talk with Caroline," Jane beamed. "She seems really nice."

"Adolf Hitler would merely be misunderstood to you if you ever met him," Elizabeth smiled affectionately. "Don't lie, I bet she was a beast."

Jane looked uncomfortable at the prospect of talking down about someone. "She's not the best person I've ever met but I suppose after a little fishing around I could find something to relate myself to her."

"Yeah, okay, but what do you think about Bingley?" Elizabeth asked her excitedly.

Jane blushed again. "He's a good dancer…" Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Charlotte tapped Lizzie on the shoulder and pointed to the Bingley party, Charlie was gesturing for them to come over.

"Come on," Lizzie took her sister's hand and walked over to them. Though she was less than excited over listening to

Darcy's self centered rants again, she decided to suck it up for her sister. If dealing with Darcy was included in her sister's happiness, then she would need to deal with him sooner or later.

"You're a great dancer," Charlie beamed as Jane came closer. "All the boys must tell you that, though."

"One boy did," Elizabeth told him, much to Jane's chagrin. "He expressed it through badly written poetry." She laughed joyously at her sister's blush. "The easiest way to lose a girl's interest is through badly written poetry, I promise you."

"Poetry is often considered the food of love," Darcy piped up through the laughter of the group, clearly unamused.

"Well, yes I suppose," Lizzie said slowly, surprised to have been countered. "But only if you're already in a solid relationship. When someone starts randomly spouting poetry, it can be sort of creepy."

"What do you suggest as an icebreaker for affection, then? Without it being creepy, I mean," Darcy was mocking her with his eyes and if Elizabeth was a lesser woman then she would have scowled at him.

"Dancing," she bit back imperiously. "even if your partner isn't the prettiest girl in the room." With that, she turned on her heels and strutted back to the dance floor with Charlotte at her heels. A few minutes after Elizabeth left, Jane and Bingley went in for another dance.

Before long Homecoming was over, and their mother was waiting for them in the parking lot.

"Tell me everything," the mischievous gleam of gossip was reflected in her eyes, and Elizabeth took a breather on this one, allowing the four other sisters to wag their tongues and fuel the gossiping fire within their mother.

All Elizabeth could feel was pity for her poor father, who had to hear the recap when they got home.


	3. Chapter 3

Elizabeth knew before she went to bed that tomorrow morning would be a horror. Before they'd dropped Charlotte off at her house, Mrs. Bennet made Mrs. Lucas promise that they'd come over for Saturday morning brunch with the rest of the Lucas family. At the moment Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Lucas were having a heated discussion on the latest Bingley gossip, both Charles and Caroline.

"You know Jane danced with him all night," Mrs. Bennet bragged loudly, though Mrs. Lucas was right next to her. Both the men in the room merely rolled their eyes and continued to talk about football, not at all interested in who's daughter was doing what with whom.

Mrs. Lucas shook her head. "I'm not sure that's such a good thing, you know. He's been known to have had quite a few girlfriends in the past."

Mrs. Bennet merely waved her off. "I've seen the other girls he's dated. None of them can even begin to compare with Jane's beauty."

"Beautiful or not, he's still dated a lot," Charlotte's mother persisted stubbornly. "We all know that Jane is the prettiest girl on Cape Cod. He would be a fool not to fall in love with her."

Mrs. Bennet looked very proud of herself for a moment, then her face scrunched up as she remembered an unpleasant thought. "Speaking of fools, how about that William Darcy character?"

Mrs. Lucas' eyes lit up in a way that eyes tend to do when gossiping. "He may be a fool, but he's a rich and famous fool. Or, at least he was. Still rich, mind you," she told the girls that were seated in various chairs around the room. "You'd all be fools if you didn't at least try to get his attention." Lydia and Kitty giggled with excitement, for they hadn't actually conversed with Darcy yet and still had high hopes that they could change his mind about being so inconsiderate.

"Excuse me Mrs. Lucas," Elizabeth added politely. "But I don't think that Darcy wants anyone's attention. He ignored both me and all the other partnerless girls." Silently Lizzie thought Mrs. Lucas must be a fool for trying to set up anyone with someone so distasteful.

"I wouldn't want any of my girls associating with that arrogant, mannerless, and mean tyrant!" Mrs. Bennet crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly.

"Mother!" Jane was shocked at the strong accusations her mother was making against a person who could hardly defend himself at the present time. "We hardly know him!"

"Didn't stop him from insulting you, did it?" Mrs. Bennet bit back, and Jane knew it was pointless to argue. "Anyway, Elizabeth, promise me that you'll never encourage him?"

Elizabeth looked up from the book she was reading for her English class and sighed, annoyed at her mother's tirades. "Yes mother, I promise that I will never willingly dance with William Darcy."

Her mother huffed and accepted the promise as adequate. "Well, that's that then. So I heard that Caroline Bingley..."

And so the gossip went on like this for the remainder of the morning. It wasn't long after Elizabeth's promise that Charlotte and Elizabeth were able to disentangle themselves from the conversation and go on a bike ride.

The Cape had many attractions for tourists, and several for wildlife preservation. In Cotuit there was a conservation that was right nearby their neighborhood and was easily accessible by bike. It was a dirt road that went along for nearly a mile and ended at the water. The girls decided to travel down that path that morning, and sat down on a bench to gaze out on the water and the gulls swooping down to get fish. They could feel the slight breeze come in that marked the change between summer and fall, and they tried to ignore it to bring back the memories of that summer.

"So your sister and Bingley?" Charlotte smirked after a while.

"Yes," Lizzie replied somewhat defensively. She knew that Jane had liked Bingley last night, but it'd only been one day. She felt that it wasn't right to jump to conclusions only after one meeting, and besides, Jane always had always liked people after her first meeting with them. Lizzie was often jealous of the amount of friends that her sister had, but too often she heard what they said about her behind her back and realized that Jane never really had a best friend beside Elizabeth. Elizabeth made sure to treasure both Charlotte and Jane for this reason.

"She'd better hold on to him," Charlotte warned. "Otherwise he'll think she's not interested in him."

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "She's shy!" Charlotte and Elizabeth had been friends for many years, after they met in kindergarten and realized that they lived close to one another, and even though they were very close, they still disputed over many things. Romance and boys were a main argument during sleepovers.

Charlotte shook her head. "That doesn't matter. If she doesn't show she's interested, then he'll leave. Just watch. Boys are so easily distracted." Charlotte was speaking from experience on this one, for her only potential boyfriend left her while she was deciding on whether or not to accept his offer to take her out to lunch. Though she'd never entertained a thought for him, she'd learned a very important lesson about boys that day.

"Give her more credit," Elizabeth prodded. "It's only been a day. Besides, shouldn't someone be sure that they like someone else before encouraging a relationship?"

"By then it could be too late." Charlotte turned her attentions back to the water and watched a lone sailboat float across the water. "Just watch, you'll see."

***

It was the Bingley's and Darcy's first day of High School, and already the teachers knew that their students attentions would hardly be focused on their studies. A few teachers were wise enough to bargain with the kids, that if they allowed a few minutes of free time to chat with the celebrities then they would have to give their undivided attention to the lesson, but some were not quite aware of the excitement of their students and continued to teach the lesson despite the uncontrollable giggling. Charlie's protests of, "I'd actually like to learn something," and "what if this is on the test," remained un listened to by his new classmates, who just thought that everything he said was the funniest thing ever.

Whatever classes he had with Jane and Darcy, he made a point of sitting in the middle so that no one would claim him as their seating partner and pass notes all class. He knew that no one would dare talk about anything to Darcy, and Jane was too good of a student to talk in class. So for two out of his seven classes, he was completely safe. There were two additional classes that he had with just Darcy, but even then someone managed to talk to him.

Rumors blazed through the school like a wildfire, revolving especially around the newly budding romance of Charles Bingley and Jane Bennet. They would spend many of their lunches together, either in the public library next to the school, hunched over books and doing homework, or when there wasn't much homework to be done, they would just walk the streets of Main Street Hyannis.

Occasionally Elizabeth or Darcy would join them, and sometimes both at the same time. When this happened it was mainly Jane, Charlie and Elizabeth making conversation. Darcy mostly just absorbed his surroundings and listened intently to the Bennet sisters in particular.

Caroline Bingley turned out to meet most, if not all, of Elizabeth's suspicions, and became the Queen Bee of the junior class. There had never been many cliques before, but all of the smaller popular type groups merged with Caroline as dictator. Though many of the teenagers there wished they could be part of the new empire, Elizabeth thought that all of their color coordinating depending on day of the week and strutting about the old school like they owned it was stupid and unnecessary. They had a mutual distaste for each other and took careful measures to avoid the other at all costs.

This was a hard feat for the both of them, as they had many of the same SL classes together. Caroline could only take SL classes, and unfortunately the subjects that they were together in Caroline was only better at by a few points. It became an unspoken rivalry between the two to see who could get the higher points on a quiz or a test. Charlotte naturally thought that their childish squabbles were pointless, but Elizabeth revelled in the chance to prove herself. The class found enjoyment in these games too, and between taunting the two and asking Caroline for autographs, it was amazing anyone got any work done.

Eventually as the weeks went by, the Bingley's became less of a novelty and Charlie was able to talk to Darcy without the fear of twenty five people listening on, much to all the newcomer's enthusiasm. Classes slowly lulled back into their previous excitement factor and teachers became much more patient with the celebrities. None of them really liked Darcy or Caroline very much, but Charlie seemed to be a gift from God to the school. Charlie was in love with the new environment as well, and thought the simpleness of it all was very cute.

"So what do you think of the school?" Bingley whispered to Darcy during science one day. Though he was bright, most of the material discussed was taught the year before, and it took a lot of effort on Bingley's part to keep up. Today was one of the days that he felt lazy enough to not listen.

"It is not up to standards when it comes to simple things like cleaning, but the academics are challenging enough to keep me interested," Darcy breathed back in his pompous way of speaking.

Charlie nodded slightly in agreement, though he disapproved of his friend's tone. "What do you think of the girls? I don't think I've seen a more attractive group in all my life."

Darcy's mouth seemed to turn in an almost- smile. "Yes, you were always into the natural types. I, on the other hand, was quite content with the California race."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "If by content you mean disgusted, then yes, you were content. You say I like them natural, and I say you like them brainy and fiery. Trust me, this is a good of a place as any to find such a girl. You can't mean to tell me that you haven't found a single smart girl to hold your interests?"

Darcy paused, uncomfortable with the topic. Females had never been his strong suit and all this talk of their race lately had drawn a line between the two of them, especially during lunches when Bingley would hide out with Jane and leave Darcy with Caroline, whom he despised even more than all of the girls in California. "It seems that someone has... captured my, er, special attention, as it were."

The brilliant grin that crossed Bingley's face was bright enough to light the room. "I'll bet it's Elizabeth, isn't it?"

Darcy realized his mistake just then, knowing that his friend was bound to tell his sister, and the resulting effect would be for the whole school to find it out via Facebook. Or, even worse, Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. He needed an excuse, and he needed one fast. "She has intelligent eyes," he defended.

Bingley's face fell. "Oh, that's all?"

"Is there something you'd like to share with the class, you two?" their stout Environmental teacher scolded from the Smartboard.

"No ma'am," Darcy stood up straighter and shot a dirty look to Bingley.

"Ah, you're no fun..." Bingley whispered back and began to copy the notes that their teacher had written on the document during their argument.

What Darcy kept from him is that he was fonder of her mind than her intelligent eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm just following my own time period here. It's fall in mine.**

Elizabeth thought that the never ending flow giggling coming from her two youngest sisters would ebb with the dwindling novelty of the Bingley's arrival, but there was always new news to keep them excited. This time it was weekly visits to Boston to go to the Army conventions and visit their Aunt, Mrs. Phillips, who would take them every Saturday and drive them home every Sunday. These trips went on for a few weeks, and Elizabeth thought she might scream if she heard the words "Lieutenant", "Private" or "Officer" one more time. She was all for the army and their dedication to protecting the country, but it was getting ridiculous. She knew that any attentions that any of the officers might have made to her sisters were merely attempts to shut them up, though she could not bring herself to say so and Mrs. Bennet surely would have scolded her..

Though she found their babbling distracting and childish, she envied their ability to take weekends off. The IB turned much more vigorous during junior year, and between community service, homework and sleep, she had barely any time to spend for herself. The time she did have, though, would not be spent ogling officers several years older than she was. Elizabeth was practical in that sense, and liked to spend her free time either enhancing her mind or relaxing. Providing extra stress for herself, like maintaining a boyfriend for instance, was out of the question.

One Thursday night the family was eating dinner together, and Elizabeth thought that perhaps she'd be able to go downstairs after eating to do homework before Lydia or Kitty would be able to share every millisecond of their day with them, but alas she was greatly mistaken. Once the topic of soldiers came up, it was at least another hour before Elizabeth was allowed to be excused.

After only fifteen minutes of it however, it seemed that Mr. Bennet was in a generous mood and allowed Jane and Lizzie to be excused and finish their homework. Jane and Lizzie both put their napkins on the table and rushed up to leave before someone wanted to share something with them and bring them back to the table for another half hour.

"Oh, and before you go Jane," he cut off Kitty mid- sentence. She huffed indignantly as Mr. Bennet reached into his pocket and brought out a letter. "I'm surprised that anyone actually mails invitations anymore, but it seems that you've got one."

"Who's it from?" Lydia asked eagerly, the tales of Officer Bard easily forgotten at the chance that their sister may have been invited to a party. Lydia was insensible when it came to things like parties and boys, because she just turned downright silly.

"I'm not going to tell you before I know," Jane told her sister in a teasing manner. She hadn't even looked at the address, not wanting the table to go into a frenzy if it was from who she was hoping it was from. Instead she chose to share the opening of the letter with Lizzie in the confines of their bedroom, for Lizzie was much more even tempered than much of the family.

"So, who's it from?" Lizzie asked, excited but not nearly as enthusiastic as her younger siblings. She took her backpack off the floor and sat on her bed with her Latin homework.

"The Bingley's," Jane's voice quivered with excitement as she opened the letter sloppily. Usually she took her time with the letter opening process. Lizzie noticed this difference and grinned. She tore the letter from the envelope and read it quickly, her expression getting curiouser as she went on.

"What is it?" Elizabeth asked, slightly nervous.

"Caroline wants me to come over, but Charlie won't be there because he has a meeting in New York for a possible job," Jane said, somewhat disappointed. Then she caught herself. "What am I saying! Caroline's lovely, I'm sure I'll have a nice time."

"No," Elizabeth corrected her, confused. Caroline Bingley made it extremely obvious that the Bennets were not worthy in her eyes, so she found it strange that Jane would be invited from out of the blue to the Bingley home. "You were right the first time. Caroline's dreadful."

Jane shook her head. "She's really not that bad. And besides, if I get tired of her then I'll just talk to William. He'll be there too."

Elizabeth scrunched her nose while looking up a Latin word in her dictionary. "Darcy? Well, I'm sure even he'll be a relief from Caroline."

"Who is it from?" Mrs. Bennet charged into the room without even knocking and Elizabeth could have laughed at her mother's reaction to a letter.

"Caroline Bingley. She's invited me to her house after school tomorrow for dinner. She lives really close, do you think I can borrow the Saturn?"

Mrs. Bennet's lips were pressed very tightly together at the very idea. "No... no way. You'll have to ride your bike there."

The girls were naturally shocked to hear such a suggestion come from their own mother. "But mom! It's supposed to rain tomorrow night! If I take my bike then I'll definately get a cold."

Mrs. Bennet only smiled.

***

"How ironic that you decided to take us on a mini vacation to Boston with everyone else in our house once Jane leaves," Elizabeth commented sarcastically from the middle of the van as they drove to Boston. "That way if she doesn't get sick, she'll still have to sleep over because no one will be home."

"You're a smart girl," Mrs. Bennet replied back to Lizzie from the passenger's seat. "Now be quiet."

It was no surprise to Elizabeth when she turned on her phone the next morning to find a text from her sister. She had indeed caught a cold and with no friends in the area, Charlie implored her to stay with them until she got better.

"Guess who's sick?" Lizzie announced sarcastically to her family during breakfast that morning.

"Well, if she dies then you should thank the Lord that it was at least done with the attempt to win Charles Bingley's affections. Good job Madam, you have successfully killed our daughter," Mr. Bennet congratulated his wife irritably as he sat down with his plate of food and moodily began poking at his eggs. "We'll have to pick her up on the way back tonight, I don't want to rely on the Bingley's more than we have to."

"No, no," Mrs. Bennet interrupted hastily. "If Charles is nice enough to extend his invitation to Jane, then who are we to deprive him of his hospitality?" She smiled to Mr. Bennet as if she was the one that was doing the good deed. "No, she will stay at the Bingley's until she is better."

Lizzie did her homework on the hour ride back from Boston, thinking the whole time how pointless it all was. All they did was go shopping, and if she wanted to do that she could have just taken the bus to the mall that was nearby the school. She'd had to cancel her plans for reading to the children at her public library for CAS hours, and would have to make it up again during the hectic week. The thought that crossed her mind most frequently, however, was the health of her sister.

'I'm going to see her when I get back,' thought Elizabeth stubbornly. 'Who cares about Math homework anyway?'

And so with some careful persuasion, Elizabeth set out on a walk for Rosings. Mr. Bennet was reluctant to let her go, for without her he would be stuck in a house without order. But eventually he realized that poor Jane needed her sister for strength and gave her his permission.

Cape Cod was a very scenic place, and the trees were only beginning to color. Elizabeth didn't mind riding along the sidewalks and admiring the beauty. The rain the previous day only added to the magic of it all, and the puddles reflected the impossibly blue sky. It was a decent ride, and by the time she reached the Bingley household, she hardly noticed the brown damp spots on her jeans from the puddles and her helmet hair.

The home was beautiful, of course, and though she knew it wasn't built long ago, it was styled in the way of Revolutionary era. It was very big, and Elizabeth didn't know exactly where she should put her bike, for anywhere would make it seem dreadfully out of place. She chose to plant it behind the shed.

Several garden workers eyed her warily, for over the course of the few weeks they'd been used to stray teenagers showing up uninvited. They left Elizabeth alone, however, and left her to ring the doorbell.

A maid opened the large door for her, and when Elizabeth walked in she was greeted with several copies of famous paintings and fabulous curtains. The place was obviously designed by someone with great taste in Colonial lifestyle. 'Can't have been Caroline' she thought with a grin.

"I'm here to see my sister, Jane?" she asked the maid awkwardly. It wasn't often that she went to someone's house that had hired help, and she wasn't quite sure how much the maid knew.

"I will show you Charlie, yes? Is good! Follow me!" The small Italian woman led Elizabeth through the corridor to a large sitting room. This was a bit more modernly furnished, with several leather chairs, a fireplace, a large television, and a popcorn machine. Elizabeth felt herself relax a little and felt less intimidated being surrounded by the warm colors of the room, as opposed to the harsh brown of the doorway.

"Charlie, there is a lady here to speak to her sister."

Charlie was casually sprawled on the couch flipping channels on the large flat screen, Caroline was busy on Facebook and Darcy was doing homework. The maid's announcement made Charlie look up from the screen at Elizabeth and his face brightened. None of the others even looked up when the door opened.

"Lizzie!" Charlie stood up to hug Lizzie and Darcy looked up from his science textbook in alarm, and stood up abruptly.

"Hello Charlie, hello William," she smiled. Though she found Darcy's attitude less than admirable, she still tolerated him more than Caroline, who still hadn't bothered to look up from her laptop. "How is my sister?"

Charlie released her and his face molded into one of deep affection. "She's doing awesome, would you like me to show her to you?"

"That would be great, thanks!" She nodded to Darcy, who silently returned to his homework. She found his constant observation of her strange, and often felt like an amoeba on the wrong side of the magnifying glass when around him. She felt as though he was digesting her character, taking apart her brain and personality with every piercing gaze. It proved that he was far more intelligent than she would have first thought, but still it unnerved her that he would provide so much attention to someone he barely knew.

Charlie led her up the stairs to one of the many guest bedrooms, and opened the door to reveal the pale face of her sister. At first Jane didn't see Lizzie, but once she did, her face broke into a tight lipped smile.

'How does she look so pretty, even when she's sick as a dog?' Lizzie mused for a moment, but then shook it off and devoted her attentions to comforting her sister. Jane did look pretty, even though she was white and congested. "Jane, I thought you said it wasn't that bad! You must have the flu!"

Elizabeth sat down on a corner of the bed and Charlie pulled up a seat to sit next to the bed. "Don't get too close," Jane warned feebly before Lizzie rolled her eyes and leaned over to press her lips against her forehead.

"Geez, Jane! You're burning up!" She grabbed a cool cloth that Charlie had left on the side table before and put it on Jane's forehead.

"Stop making such a fuss, Lizzie!" Jane was slightly embarrassed to be babied right in front of Charlie. "It's really alright. Remember when I had chicken pox? That was a lot worse."

Elizabeth retorted and spent much of the evening looking over Jane, even after Charlie left to watch a new episode of his favorite show. Before she knew it, it was almost sunset and would've been too dark before she got home on her bike.

It was Jane that noticed this first. "Lizzie, look how late it is! The sky's getting pink!" Elizabeth looked up from her book and went to the window to peer out into the sky.

"Oh yeah," she was startled. She then crossed over to Jane's bedside and kissed her on the forehead. "Have a nice night Jane, I'll be back tomorrow."

"You can't leave now," Jane shook her golden curls. "It'll be too dark before you get back!"

"I can't take advantage of the Bingley's hospitality. I'll say goodnight to Charlie then ride home."

She went downstairs and retraced her steps to the sitting room, where Charlie was sitting, this time doing homework. Caroline and Darcy were not there this time, and Lizzie suspected that they thought themselves too important to sit with Charlie. "Goodbye Charlie, thank you for allowing me to stay with Jane."

He stood up, looking shocked. "You haven't eaten dinner with us yet! We eat pretty late and assumed that you'd be eating with us. Besides," he gestured to the window. "it'll be dark before you get home. You can borrow some of Caroline's clothes and stay in the guest room next to Jane's."

'When I wear Caroline's clothes, I'll dance naked in the middle of an IB exam!' she thought to herself. Instead of sharing this thought with her host, she said instead; "I really couldn't impose. Besides, I think Caroline and I have different, er, styles, when it comes to bedwear."

Charlie shrugged. "I can't argue with you there. You can borrow one of my shirts. Lord knows I have too many to begin with." He smiled at her. Elizabeth realized just then that though Bingley was often around people, he didn't know what was appropriate in normal situations. Offering the sister of your almost- girlfriend a shirt to sleep in for the night wasn't quite appropriate. However, instead of wounding Bingley's pride, she decided to accept his offer.

"I'll just text my father to let him know that I'll be sleeping over,"she sighed, defeated.

Bingley smiled brighter. "Wonderful! We'll eat in ten minutes." He then left the room, leaving Elizabeth to text her father and wonder to herself what exactly she had gotten herself into.

Dinner was lax in the household, and since there wasn't much adult supervision from any parental figures, there was much reliance on the teenagers to get all their work done on by their own will. Because of this, the dinner table was mostly quiet. Caroline chose to do her homework at the time instead of socializing, Darcy was reading periodically, and Bingley chatted with Elizabeth. Elizabeth noticed after a while that Darcy spent at least ten minutes on a page and suspected that he was listening to their conversation, though made nothing of it.

It amused Elizabeth to think of her mother's reaction to the fantastic food served. At this point Mrs. Bennet would be on her knees in front of Charles and most likely begging him to take Jane away from her to his castle.

The workload was still fairly light, as it was the beginning of the year, and by the end of the meal all of the teenagers were done with their night's work. Charles suggested playing Apples to Apples, a fun card game involving verbs and matching nouns and adjectives. Caroline naturally had other things to do and excused herself, but Darcy and Elizabeth consented quietly and they spent the remainder of their Saturday evening playing card games and talking about school and other safe topics.

It was a little after nine when they all decided to part ways, and before Elizabeth fell asleep a curious thought passed through her mind, for why would Darcy insist upon her wearing his shirt instead of Charlie's?

***

Elizabeth had always been a late sleeper, and so was Darcy. At least, he normally was. However, on this Sunday morning he found himself unable to fall back to sleep after awakening at five o'clock in the morning. He then decided to join his friends downstairs and perhaps even finish the letter he's been writing to his sister. Even though emails and text messages were much faster, he preferred to write personal letters in ink. He felt that it made his sentiments seem all the more real than a quick, 'love u' text message.

Caroline was, as usual, the first one to speak. "Why don't you think that Liz showing up with soaked pants weird? Because I do. How is that appropriate way to show up in someone's house?"

Darcy found Caroline's droning way of speaking and her constant condescending tones aggravating, especially at six o'clock in the morning. "You know she hates being called Liz," he corrected monotonically. "Besides, can't a girl exercise?"

"Liz, Lizzie, whatever," Caroline waved her hand. "That's not the point. The point is, would you want Georgiana to show up at someone's house covered in mud and expect to be treated with respect?"

Darcy hesitated for a moment, his pen poised over the paper. "No," he admitted. "I wouldn't want Georgiana showing up like that, but I wouldn't treat her any differently."

Caroline shook her head with a smile. "Oh please, we all know you. You'd judge them if a hair was out of place."

Darcy shrugged and continued with his letter.

"Yes she's very weird," Caroline continued, either stubbornly unaware of her listeners intolerance for gossip about their new guest, or was merely trying to persuade the others of Elizabeth's "true" nature. "In class she always raises her hand, even when she doesn't completely know the answer. I heard her talking to you the other day, Charlie, and she said that if she didn't love theatre so much she would have taken two languages! Two, can you believe that? And she likes the strangest things for a girl. She said to Rebecca, the one with the long hair, that she couldn't wait for the new Avengers movie to come out on DVD-"

"Sorry to break it to you, Caroline, but we really don't care," Charlie groaned and switched on the TV. "Will, do you want to play Mario Kart with me?"

"Not right now, I have to mail this."

He got up to leave, but Caroline put a hand on his arm. "Before you do, could you put it in there how much I miss Georgiana?"

For Darcy it was still too early to try to even make any attempts to be civil, so he answered as abruptly as he could without sounding too rude. "I'll see if I can fit it in."

Caroline was satisfied for the time being, and the morning went on normally until Elizabeth joined them for breakfast. She was still in Darcy's shirt from the previous night and wore some leggings underneath it. The shirt was long enough to go down to her knees, and Caroline turned positively crimson with anger at the sight of it. Darcy himself looked a little pink when he saw her, and looked away.

"Jane's looking better already," Elizabeth assured Charlie when she saw his questioning face. "She probably won't be able to go to school tomorrow though." Jane hated when she missed school, because she knew all it meant was extra work later on. Jane had protested her absence, but when she grasped Elizabeth's wrist and Lizzie realized how drastic her temperature had changed over the night, she insisted all the more intensely.

"That's fine," Charlie shrugged with a smile, barely able to keep the delight off his face that Jane would be staying with him for a few more days. "She can stay here as long as she wants." He was positively giddy with joy at the possibility.

"Your parents are back, aren't they?" Caroline asked through gritted teeth. "She can go home now." Caroline was seething, for it had been her goal for many years to be Darcy's girlfriend. She was of the old fashioned sort that believed money must remain in the family for any sort of a successful relationship and future. Darcy knew all this, and tried to stay away from her as much as possible. He felt that had her affections been genuine, then she would not have flirted and dated with so many other men. Besides, they were of two different breedings. They thought differently, and Darcy knew that a healthy relationship cannot be based upon wealth alone.

So, he ignored her, except at the rare occasions when there was no one else interesting or previously known acquaintance at a party and he forced himself to talk to her.

"No, Caroline. She's staying," Charlie shot a warning glance at his sister.

"Sure, so she can get the rest of us sick. Wonderful," muttered Caroline darkly as she plucked at her toast. Elizabeth pretended not to hear her and helped herself to some fruit.

"You like fruit?" Charlie looked down at her plate, amused. "So does Darcy. His favorite is cantaloupe."

"Oh really?" Elizabeth added politely. "I like cantaloupe too, but I think that my favorite is strawberry."

"Yes this is great and all," Caroline cut in obnoxiously, standing up. She'd barely eaten anything, and though this was something less than unusual, Darcy noticed that she ate less than her typical bird servings. This suggested that something was bothering her and Darcy, being the smart man he is, caught on immediately. His grin only infuriated her more and she rushed to the trash to dump the rest of her food out. "But I have things to do. Tell your sister that if she does want to get the rest of us sick, the rest of us won't include me. So if anyone wants me, I'll be at the mall."

And with that, the redhead stormed out of the room, leaving only the intense perfumed smell of lavenders behind. "Thank God she's gone," Bingley grinned, speaking what was on the mind of all the others. "Well, I'm done," he announced standing up. "It was nice while it lasted. I'm just going to be upstairs Skyping with my agent. Call me if you need anything, okay?" he asked of Lizzie, who smiled and nodded in reply. "Make yourself feel at home," he said as he put his dish near the ornate silver sink.

Soon, it was only Darcy and Lizzie in the kitchen. They both finished their breakfast in silence, Darcy eating significantly slower than usual. When Lizzie finished she stood up. "Do you mind if I go and check up on Jane?"

Darcy shrugged. "Sure." When Lizzie left the room, he merely sighed and put his elbows on the table.

***

It only took Caroline three hours to return back from her shopping expedition, though she still hadn't calmed down from the morning. "Can you believe her? She's still up there. Jane won't get any better no matter how much she stares at her."

"Jesus, Caroline! Will you just leave the poor girl alone," Darcy groaned after twenty minutes of this.

"Oh yeah? Why should you care?" Caroline bit back, hurt and extremely jealous.

Darcy rubbed his eyes. No matter how much coffee he drank in the morning, Caroline always managed to get him as tired as he was before the caffeine. "She's obviously a good friend of Charlie's, so you should be quiet."

"Is she your friend?" Caroline turned sharply in the direction of her brother, who was studying for a math test.

"Yeah," he answered tiredly and Caroline pouted silently while plucking on her fingernails. Just then the door swung open and Lizzie walked in, clutching a book.

"Charlie, I borrowed a book from your library. I hope you don't mind." She sat as far away from Caroline as she could and tried to ignore the intense eyes of William at the back of her head.

"Eh, I don't read. What is it?"

"The Hobbit," Lizzie answered without missing a beat and choosing to ignore Caroline's snicker. Charlie distractedly nodded his head and went back to his binder.

"You want to know what a really good book is? The Twilight Saga," Caroline piped up.

"Caroline, you know a saga means more than one book, right?" William sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Yes of course," she waved him off. "Bella's my favorite girl character."

Lizzie had the overwhelming desire to scowl, but suppressed it. "Why's that? Because she has no drive or ambition for anything in particular other than being a bloodsucking housewife?" She didn't mean for it to come out so sarcastic, but what was done was done, and it was worth it just to see Caroline's face turn bright red.

"She does a lot more than that," Caroline waved her hand to brush Lizzie off. Lizzie opened her mouth to disagree, but Charlie was faster.

"You know, I've never met any girl that isn't good at _everything_, everyone's always better than someone else. It's very annoying. Why won't anyone admit they're bad at something without looking for sympathy?"

"Because everyone has to be good at something, Charlie," Caroline rolled her eyes. Then she smirked. "But Will doesn't think so. He feels that everyone is the same, with only a few people better than the others." This piqued Lizzie's interest.

"No one's awful at everything," Darcy protested. "But yes, I think that there's only a few people that deserve my utmost respect. No one in California, I can tell you that."

"What does a girl have to do to earn your respect, great sir?" Caroline asked sarcastically.

"They've got to have both breasts covered, first of all," he said pointedly to Caroline, who's bra was showing over the top of her loose, deep, v-neck. She blushed and Lizzie grinned. "She's got to be both school smart and street smart, respectful, cultured and read a lot." Suddenly Lizzie became very aware of the book that seemed to burn into her palm so hot she felt it could have made an indent, so she put it quickly on the table next to her.

"Is that all?" she asked quickly. "I'm surprised you've met any at all. I haven't met a single person that meet any of your qualifications."

He arched an eyebrow and seemed to want to respond, but shut his mouth.

"Yes, he's very negative," she pulled up her shirt and reached for her iPhone to update her Facebook profile.

"Not negative, just the truth," Darcy protested stiffly, wanting nothing more than for this conversation to end.

"Yes, we all know that you're very demanding," Charlie commented with a slight smirk. "But can we all please stop throwing knives at each other?"

Caroline's lips pressed together and her eyes narrowed, but she made no other comments.

The rest of the afternoon was spent mostly in peace.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day Lizzie sat in the backseat of a four person Porsche for the first time. It was, in fact, a Bingley Porsche, and they were on the way to school. Jane was left at the Bingley mansion for the time being, due to the fact that Mrs. Bennet was conveniently not answering any phone calls, text messages, or emails. The only text that Lizzie's mother seem to have gotten was the one Lizzie sent late the previous night that read; "Mom. If and when will I see you again?" The response to the message was, "Will be over with the girls tomorrow." Lizzie tried to explain to her mom that it simply wasn't appropriate, but to no avail. It seemed that Mrs. Bennet's phone had misplaced itself again.

Charlie had convinced her that it was okay, but Lizzie was still upset that her mother wasn't following the common rules of courtesy by asking to be invited over first. Throughout the course of the day her other three sisters met her in giggling frenzies, asking for their oldest sister. And of course, if the romance between her and the actor had progressed.

After Mary asked her if Charlie had made a move yet, Lizzie finally lost her patience. "With Jane sick he can't go around kissing her! Just leave me alone!" Mary had strode off quickly, insulted, and Lizzie was left to feel guilty about it for the rest of the school day. Her mood was temporarily lifted, however, when she entered her HL History class and Charlotte was sitting there waiting for her.

"Hey Lizzie! Have a nice weekend?"

"Yeah, didn't have time to do any CAS though. Unless caring for your sick sister counts as community service, I can't clock in for this week."

"I forgot about Jane. I got your text about her though, how is she?" Charlotte looked sympathetically at Lizzie as she pulled her notebook out of her bag. "Yeah I was only able to work two hours at the vet clinic this weekend. I hope that's enough. Maybe next week I can convince them to let me paint some kennels or something for creativity credit."

Lizzie shrugged and began to rummage through her bag as well. "Jane's fine. She's at the Bingley's getting better until mom remembers about her and takes her home. And I'm sure they'll let you paint somewhere."

"I hope she gets better," Charlotte continued conversationally, but just then the teacher came in and all talking vanished quickly. "Yeah," she whispered as the lights turned off and the documentary on Stalin turned on. "I'm sure my boss'll find something for me to do."

Lizzie merely nodded and all talking was finished.

***

"So when are your family coming?" Caroline asked disdainfully from the backseat next to Darcy. William looked less than enthused about sitting next to the redhead, but it was only polite to let the guest sit in the front. Besides, Charlie would never let him drive. The Porsche was his baby and no one, not even his oldest friend, was allowed to drive it. If Caroline wasn't Caroline she still wouldn't be a person to talk to, as she was texting someone or other all the time. So William typically occupied himself with a book when forced to sit next to Charlie's sister.

Elizabeth was enjoying the cooling weather and had her window open a crack. This only managed to irritate Caroline more because, even though there was no one important there to see it, her hair was still getting ruined from the breeze. However, not even Caroline could break the mood so with closed eyes she answered the teenager's question. "She never told me. She's bad with detail."

"You can tell her it's rude," Caroline grumbled.

Will had enough and he finally spoke up. "It's not like you're going anywhere. Why can't you tolerate something spontaneous for a second?" Caroline only stuck out her bottom lip in a pout.

"I've already told her," Elizabeth commented, pushing the fact that Darcy came to her defense again in the back of her mind. "She didn't answer her phone."

"Hey Charlie, bet she's trying to get you together with her daughter!" Caroline supplied with false enthusiasm.

Charlie reddened and the hands that gripped the steering wheel turned white, yet his face remained neutral. "Caroline, really!"

"No, it all makes sense!" she continued, and Lizzie was strongly tempted to just put on her headphones to block her out. "Her mom only answers her phone to tell us she's coming, they just happened to not be there when Jane got sick, that's it!" Now the tips of Charlie's ears were red and still he said nothing.

Darcy snorted."You act as if Elizabeth isn't even in the car!"

"No it's fine," Elizabeth assured Darcy. "If Caroline has something bad to say about my family, I'm sure she would take the mature approach instead of acting like a monkey." Slight smirks ran across the faces of both men briefly before a silence overtook the car. It would have been the comfortable silence shared between friends had Caroline been there, but with her in the vehicle it just became awkward.

"Does anyone like music?" Charlie asked cheerfully.

***

"Such a lovely home! So furnished, so expensive! I assume you have decorators, Charlie dear?" Mrs. Bennet had spent the past twenty five minutes praising everything and anything in the house as Charlie gave them the grand tour. At first the remaining Bennet girls that had not experienced the pleasure of having the tour were excited, pointing at things that interested them and talking amongst themselves, but not they were tired of their mothers constant interruptions on how much things were worth, how much they cost and how 'oh so lucky' Charlie Bingley and his sister were.

"Yes, Mrs. Bennet. There's no way I could have come up with all this. If I had my way the walls would still be white with a few pictures of Golden Retrievers on them!"

"Oh aren't you just the cutest thing? Isn't he girls?"

"Mother, we've said yes three times already," Mary drawled tiredly and rolled her eyes while Charlie covered his smile with a palm.

Mrs. Bennet frowned. "Well a man doesn't have to get tired of hearing himself being called attractive now does he?"

"No, he doesn't," Charlie agreed with an easy smile, though he was all too eager to end this tour as soon as possible. The Bennets had come, surprisingly enough, right in time for dinner. Mrs. Bennet had come with the ready excuse that she had run her phone over with her car, accidentally of course, right after she texted Elizabeth. Lizzie was astonished that the first thing out of her mother's mouth was not the desire to see her sick daughter but to see the entirety of the mansion. Lizzie was able to convince her mother that Jane's health was more important and that the showing of the mansion could be kept until after dinner.

The tour ended quickly after that, and they made their way back to the main living area where Darcy, Caroline and Elizabeth were already stationed.

"Are you all planning to go to the Halloween Dance in two weeks?" Lydia blurted out, then was nudged by Kitty.

"You just can't ask people if they're going to a dance or not," Kitty whispered to her twin and rolled her eyes.

"I don't know, maybe," Charlie shrugged. "I'll go if Darcy goes, right bud?" Darcy didn't even smile back at him and Charlie's one sided chuckles became awkward very quickly. He cleared his throat and began seriously. "If your sister's better by then, then yes. I'll go."

"So, what are we going to do now?" Mrs. Bennet piped up after a moment of silence.

Caroline's mouth turned up in a fake smile. "You know Mrs. Bennet, some of us do have school tomorrow and don't like to be kept up longer than we have to."

"Yes some of us need as much beauty sleep as we can get," William commented dryly, much to Elizabeth's pleasure. Elizabeth found it astonishing that, had she not been a guest at Caroline's house, she would have said the very same thing.

"Oh," Mrs. Bennet said, the disappointment etched clearly on her face. "We should get going then."

Charlie, ever the pleaser, felt guilty at Caroline's sudden dismissal and sought to make up for his sister's rudeness, though it may cost him an evening. "You don't have to... we could play cards, or... something?"

"No it's fine, the girls have school tomorrow too," Mrs. Bennet sighed. Elizabeth stood up as if to leave with her mother, but Mrs. Bennet merely waved her to sit back down. "Elizabeth honey, you'll have to stay with your sister." Caroline's eyebrows crossed at the Bennet mother's rudeness but chose to say nothing.

"Well, if you insist on keeping me here then I hope you brought some clothes. I can't go around wearing other people's clothes forever, can I?"

"Caroline has some that would fit you, I'm sure, Good night everybody!" With that she left with the other three girls.

"Thank you Charlie!" Lydia and Kitty chorused together.

"Forgive her," muttered Mary darkly as she closed the door behind her.

The room was silent for a moment and Lizzie gazed dumbfounded at the closed door. "I don't believe that woman!"

Caroline stood up triumphantly and went to the door. Opening it, she turned around. "Try that mother in law on for size, big boy!" She closed the door and the room was quiet.

"I hate it when she does this, I'm sorry Charlie," Elizabeth apologized sincerely. "I think it's time that I went to bed too."

"Anytime, I like you and your sister," Charlie smiled, then realized his mistake. "Not that I don't like the others, what I meant was..."

Elizabeth smiled warmly. "I know what you meant. Goodnight Charlie," she hesitated. "Goodnight Will."

"Night Lizzie!"

"Goodnight Elizabeth," Darcy rumbled quietly, pausing a moment and then returning to his book. After a while he began to feel the eyes of Charlie Bingley on the back of his head and he looked up. "What?" Charlie wiggled his eyebrows in response and Darcy sighed. "What?"

"You were looking at her all night."

"I was not! There's no proof of that!"

"Yes there is! You've been on the same page of that book for an hour!"

"I'm a slow reader," Darcy quipped short temperedly.

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Oh please we both know that isn't true," he lowered his voice several octaves. "I think you're sweet on Elizabeth Bennet. Like, even more than you already are."

Darcy pressed his lips together and exhaled deeply through his nose. "I think," he began slowly, "that if she wasn't in association with such people, I would be in some danger of... liking her more than I should."

Charlie hissed through his teeth. "That's bull! You know maybe someday you'll learn to show some emotion."

"Maybe someday you'll learn not to show your emotion so clearly on your face so that any fool can take advantage of you! Now goodnight!" Darcy put his bookmark in roughly, slammed the book on the table and left. The door made a loud noise as he shut it, and Charlie shouted out a quick, "Night!" before Darcy's hurried footsteps could no longer be heard climbing up the stairs.


	6. Chapter 6

Darcy and Caroline only had to endure one more day of the Bennet girls before Elizabeth finally decided that Jane was well enough to make the ten minute ride back home. Mrs. Bennet, of course, wouldn't hear of it but Lizzie was finished with being embarrassed at her rudeness for a while and only wanted to go back home. Though she enjoyed Charlie and a few of the other maids at the mansion, Darcy was far too quiet and Caroline was much too obnoxious. Mrs. Bennet refused to pick her up, as Elizabeth expected, so she just called Charlotte, who was a few months older and had her license.

Charlie had offered her his car that he could pick up at her house sometime later in the week, but Lizzie assured him it wasn't necessary. They all met around Charlotte Lucas' car that afternoon after school, with Jane in the back propped up with a few blankets and holding a cup of tea.

"Thanks for being sick, Jane," Charlie told her through the open window with a smile.

Jane sniffed and gave a small smile. "Anytibe," was the way it came out with a stuffed nose.

Bingley then turned to Elizabeth, "Anytime you want to come over, you just come over, got it? That includes you too Charlotte." Charlotte blushed a deep red and gripped the steering wheel, nodding to the ground.

"Thanks Charlie, you've been awesome. See you in school!" Lizzie waved to him as Charlotte revved the engine and they sped off down the road.

"Bye!" Charlie called, waving back while Darcy only raised his hand up. When the car was out of view, Charlie turned to his friend. "I'll bet you're _real _sorry to see them go, aren't you?"

Darcy stiffened. "I'm glad to see them go. Caroline's been more irritating than usual. Besides, she attracts more attention than I would like."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Okay Will, okay."

***

"How are you feeling Jane?" Elizabeth whispered to Jane, who had just awoken for the third time that night. Jane was staying home from school again and Lizzie was getting ready to go.

Jane coughed a little. "Better, it feels so good to be back home," she whispered back.

Elizabeth frowned. "That's what I thought. Mother was being selfish and it wasn't right for her to keep you there!"

Jane shook her head jerkily and sighed sleepily. "No, I wanted to be there, but it's good to be home."

Lizzie snorted lightly and pulled on her jacket. "Goodnight Jane."

"'night Lizzie..." Jane yawned and within seconds she was snoring again. Elizabeth lightly turned the doorknob and crept down the stairs. When she was halfway down she heard the rambunctious noises of her sisters arguing about who will get to use the straightener first.

"Lydia, Kitty, shut it!" Lizzie strictly told them off in a loud whisper. "Your sister is sleeping!"

They continued to ignore her and this put Elizabeth in a rather foul mood. One could always tell when she was upset because her actions spoke much louder than her words. It was because of this start of the day that completely threw her off, and the Latin quiz that she had first period went much worse than she would have liked. She missed a line in her theatre monologue and forgot to bring her book to class. Her mood escalated steadily for the first three periods of the day, and then came lunchtime.

Lizzie liked lunches for reasons besides eating, though it was a definite perk. On Wednesdays she usually tutored this one sophomore for History, but she had to tell the lowerclassman that she couldn't make it today due to a mental breakdown. It wasn't Kitty and Lydia's rude squabbling that made her so angry, it was the blatant disregard for manners and civility that pushed her off the edge. Imagine, an older sister is extremely ill, and the younger ones fight over a straightener. A man is kind enough to give his hospitality to a girl, and the mother of said girl extends the hospitality to fit the whole family. Without asking. Sometimes Lizzie wondered if she and her father were the only sensible ones in the family.

So she decided to take a mental health break and walk down to the Green. The Green was a park near the school that students went during lunch to play a sport, have a date with a significant other, hang out with a group of friends, or just walk. It was now officially fall and so the numbers of people on the Green were decreasing daily, which made it perfect for Lizzie to sit down by herself and think. She brought her book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and settled down on a bench for the period, setting her phone alarm to five minutes before class starts.

"Hey Lizzie," Charlotte greeted her from behind. Lizzie didn't see her but closed her eyes and exhaled. She really didn't want to see anyone at the moment, but she figured she had to be nice to her very best friend.

"Hey Charlotte," she replied, putting on her best happy face.

Charlotte took a seat right next to Lizzie, who regretfully put a bookmark in her book. "You didn't look too happy in History today."

"I guess I've just been thinking too much again," she shrugged. Charlotte gave her a look that clearly told Lizzie that her vague explanation wasn't good enough. She sighed and tried again. "I just feel that none of my family members think rationally. I mean, either they're too selfish, too giving, or too... I don't even know what mother is. Sometimes I think I just carry the family on my shoulders."

Charlotte listened intently and nodded understandably. "Yeah, you know how many brothers and sisters I have. It gets kind of crazy. Besides, did you know that Maria has a boyfriend now?" Lizzie rolled her eyes, for both Charlotte's sister and the fact that her friend completely missed the point. "It'll never last, but now I'm reminded more than ever that I'll never have a boyfriend."

"Charlotte, don't talk like that! Besides, with the IB do you really think that you could keep hold of a boyfriend _and _juggle your schoolwork? I mean, some people can do it, but still!"

"Yeah, well at least people are interested in you," Charlotte replied softly, studying her fingernails and rubbing at an inkprint on her forearm.

"Name five," Lizzie joked, her bad mood suddenly evaporating as she realized the silliness of jealousy over younger sisters' boyfriends.

"Oh please," Charlotte chuckled and pushed Lizzie in the shoulder. They sat in silence, watching the colored leaves drift across the slowly dying grass. "We're some pair aren't we?" Charlotte commented softly.

Lizzie turned her head to her friend and smiled. "The very best." They shared a look, and Lizzie put up the hair that had been blowing in her face for a few minutes "Just wait for your prince, he'll come. Wait and see."

And with that, Lizzie turned her attentions towards the plane overhead, making messages in the sky, while Charlotte's easy smile disappeared and she stared at the moss covered pavement stones. _Some of us can't afford to wait..._

***

Jane got better within a matter of days, and she had plenty of work to do when she returned to school. Luckily the work wasn't too overbearing yet so she was able to get it all done by the following Monday, but other kids whose immune system decided to bail out on them later that winter had much more work loaded up on them with the threat of the IB exams overwhelming them.

Jane had gotten better before the Halloween dance, and Bingley kept his word by going. It wasn't very much fun, for not many people showed up and the ones that did kept on trying to dance with him when all he wanted to do was dance with Jane.

They became unofficially official that night, when Charlie had decided to be a gentleman and get her some punch. Soon after that the rumor mills started to churn again, for Jane's sickness had temporarily stopped them, and soon they were thriving. The stories went from Charlie punched out a drunken hobo that had stolen Jane's purse to buying her a diamond promise ring. Though most of the school knew that the rumors weren't true, it was still a lot of fun making them and Charlie and Jane took the teasing with good humor. Elizabeth and Darcy however, were not happy with the extra attention and Elizabeth became even more angry with her sisters. It was their fault Charlie went to the dance in the first place.

In this way the fall and winter seasons dragged on, Jane and Charlie hovering on the cusp of a relationship, Darcy and Elizabeth caught in the middle.

Elizabeth woke up particularly irritable one morning in late February, and Mary made the wrong choice of asking to borrow Elizabeth's good raincoat. After a few shouts and the way she slammed her glass of juice on the kitchen table told Mr. Bennet of her obvious anger at the breakfast table that morning.

"Wait for it, it's about to get a lot worse," Mr. Bennet warned her. He had a sheet of paper in his hand, written in very feminine cursive. He hadn't even touched his coffee and Mrs. Bennet, for once, kept her mouth shut.

Elizabeth's anger at her sisters immediately evaporated at the sight of her father's obvious discomfort. "What is it dad?"

Mr. Bennet seemed not to hear her for a moment, running a hand over his furrowed face and brows. He did though, and in response he shook his head. "Not now Lizzie. I'll wait for your sisters."

"You're not telling me first?" Elizabeth asked, shocked. "It must really be bad."

It took a good few minutes to get all of the girls around the same table, and even longer to get them all quiet.

"Girls," their dad spoke gravely. "I'm afraid that your grandmother's oldest friends' son Willy Collins is coming over next month to visit us for a few weeks." Worried whispers erupted from the family members and their voices all steadily rose with the desire for one to be heard above another.

"But I thought he was teaching kids how to read the Bible in Indonesia?" Mary asked, confused.

Mr. Bennet shrugged wearily. "Yes, well it seems there was a bit of a miscommunication and they didn't want him there in the first place. He's decided to go back to Arizona to meet with his provider, and then he will come over here to visit us."

"Oh great, we've got the weird one coming to visit. Perfect," Lydia rolled her eyes. "We're not even related, why does he even keep showing up?"

"He's not weird," defended Mrs. Bennet slowly. "He's just lonely."

Kitty adopted a deep monotonous voice and replied, "One cannot be lonely when one is surrounded by cats and prune juice."

"Oh my goodness Kitty, you sounded just like him!" Lydia squealed, the terror of Collins already forgotten.

"No," Mary protested. "His voice isn't that deep. He stopped midway through puberty so sometimes his voice cracks. So instead of saying 'cats' it should have been 'cAts'!"

The twins burst out laughing. "You're right!" Kitty gasped through her tears.

"Shame on you three!" Jane scolded. "So he's a little weird, we're all a little weird! I'm sure he's a nice person!"

"A nice pedophile you mean," Kitty murmured under her breath.

"Stop that," Mrs. Bennet said firmly to the still giggling girls, though a smile threatened to pass over her own face. "It takes a special person to decide and be a priest at only twenty two! Besides, he lives a comfortable life. We're going to take him in our home with dignity." Lizzie wanted to correct her mother and say that Collins wasn't quite a clergyman of the Evangelical church yet.

"Fine," Mary agreed stiffly. "But if he even tries to kiss up my arm again, I swear..."

"Please Mary," Lydia rolled her eyes. "That was six years ago, I'm sure he's gotten much creepier since then."

"Guys, stop it," Jane scolded. "He probably didn't mean it. Besides, he's almost family and I doubt he'd ever try and make a move on you. Besides, he's four years older than me. If he tries anything, dad'll call the police. Right dad?"

"I wouldn't hesitate," Mr. Bennet assured the girls. "That's another reason why he'll be sleeping on the other side of the house."

"We shouldn't get him angry though," Mrs. Bennet warned, getting up to put her breakfast dishes away. "He has powerful influence through the person he rents from, Mrs. Catherine Bourgh."

"The ex- fashion designer?" Lizzie frowned. "Oh yeah, I remember him talking about her all the time. It really was very annoying. Didn't she quit when her daughter tripped on the stage during a special needs show when she had a coughing fit?"

"Yeah that was awful!" Jane agreed, remembering the incident. "The way she treats her poor daughter is terrible, like she's not worth her time or effort."

"Poor dear," Mrs. Bennet agreed, picking up Lydia, Kitty, and Mary's plates and bringing them to the dish washer.

"Yes anyway, we've got to try and be nice to Mr. Collins, or how did he want us to call him? Oh yes, Cousin Willy." Mr. Bennet rolled his eyes and straightened his tie. Standing up, he brushed his lips across his wife's cheek and picked up his suitcase. "I guess it's time to get myself down to the store. Have a good day in school, everybody!" The rest of the family called out their goodbyes and after he left the girls began getting their own backpacks.

Jane and Lizzie still went on the bus because it cost much less for five bus passes than all the gas it would take to drive every day. Once they were on, Lizzie turned to Jane. "So, Cousin Willy?" she raised an eyebrow and Jane giggled at her. "You know," Elizabeth said in a mock- grave voice. "I think our dear Wil-ster has a bit of a crush on you."

"Oh no my dear sister, I'm afraid you must be mistaken," Jane replied back in the same deep mourning voice. "As I remember it, it is he who has the crush on you!"

"Well," Lizzie challenged jokingly, her voice returning to normal. "We'll just see when he gets here, eh?"

***

It was in April that Mr. Collins decided to show up. It was perfect for him, due to the fact that it was a few weeks after Easter. Work was picking up for Jane but she handled everything with grace and poise so sometimes it was hard to tell that she had big exams in only a few weeks. This is only another reason why the arrival of Mr. Collins was inconvenient and stressed the family out considerably. The day before he came was a nightmare, in which Mrs. Bennet rushed about the house yelling orders at everyone. Apparently the bed sheets weren't the right color, the nightstand wasn't in the right spot and the silver wasn't polished to her liking.

It was so much for Jane and Lizzie that they actually found peace in their volunteer work later that day, which was putting books back on their shelves in the library. Normally a tiresome job, that day it was much nicer than being yelled at continuously for not folding something right.

Cousin Willy decided to make his appearance at precisely five o'clock that afternoon, exactly when he said he would. Lizzie could have sworn that the rain followed him across the entire United States, for when he got there it began to pour.

"Hello! I am so happy to see you all again," he exclaimed after being let in my Mr. Bennet. He was wearing all black, and instead of that being flattering that seemed to emphasise his chubby face. He already had thinning hair on the top and his eyebrows were far too high up on his forehead, always giving him the look of surprise. The girls imagined it would be very amusing to watch him attempt to be serious during sermons. That didn't mean that they would want to watch him however, and they all had the very bad feeling that they were going to.

"Would you like me to take your coat?" Mrs. Bennet asked politely.

"No thank you, I get very cold when I come to the East Coast, that's why I like to roast in Arizona," he winked at the girls, whose fake smiling faces contorted into a sort of disgusted smirk.

"Yes well, dinner will be ready in a few minutes... would you like to sit down with us?"

"Nothing would please me more," he announced, following Mrs. Bennet into the dining room and she led him to his seat at the foot of the table. "So what have you been up to? It's been six years, right?"

They all were more than happy to tell him every second of their lives since they last saw him, due to the fact that when he stopped it would mean his turn to speak. They already made a silent pact to make the man speak as little as possible. He put in a comment whenever there was an opening in conversation but the sisters made sure there were little to none. Mr. Bennet was smirking at his daughter's antics but did not stop them when it was obvious that Collins wanted to talk.

"So Mr... sorry, Cousin Willy, how is Mrs. Bourgh?" Mrs. Bennet seemed to miss the silent agreement and actually engaged Collins in conversation, this action brought the glares of the girls, and she just shrugged confusedly in response.

"Ah yes, she is lovely as usual. She stops by every so often to make sure I didn't blow the house up," he chuckled and the Bennet family gave each other shocked glances. "I've never actually," he covered up himself and coughed into his hand. Lizzie made a face to Jane, who looked as though even she had difficulty making an excuse for Collins. "I would like a tour of this house after dinner, Mrs. Bennet. Or can I call you Gertrude?"

Mrs. Bennet made a face at her first name but nodded. "This dinner is stupendous, Gertrude. Did you make it yourself?"

"Yes, of course," Mrs. Bennet replied stiffly. "We grow the lettuce in our garden."

"Lovely! That's just what the world needs, more people like you Gertrude."

She nodded briefly. "Thank you Cousin Willy."

Collins had been glancing at the three older Bennet girls since he got in and this comment made him frown. "You see Gertrude, I've been thinking. I think you should call me Mr. Collins. I am an adult now and Cousin Willy seems much too informal. I'm not really related to any of you, right?"

The glances made to Lizzie made her feel uncomfortable and she furrowed her brows, knowing where this was going. "But you might as well be!" she smiled uncomfortably at him.

Collins blushed. "Oh, yes. Well, I'd still liked to be called that just the same." He pushed his empty plate away from him. "Goodness, I am full! How about that tour! Then after we can start a fire and I can read to you last Sunday's practice sermon, I do believe it's the best one I've ever made. I'm not actually doing masses yet, so I'd like to practice on you all, how does that sound?"

"Great," Jane assured him, earning her some glares.

***

The tour of the house mainly consisted of Collins comparing everything the Bennets owned to something else owned, or not owned, by Mrs. Catherine. And his practice sermon worried Lizzie. If that was his best one and it almost made her doze off, what would the bad ones to? Put her into a coma? She didn't doubt it. And what she didn't like most of all was the looks he kept giving her and Jane. Mary got some, but after she fell asleep in the middle of the sermon, Mr. Bennet let her go to bed. From then on the looks were mainly given to Jane and Lizzie.

"Goodnight girls!" he called cheerfully as they climbed the stairs to bed that night. "I'll see you off tomorrow, I insist!"

"I'm so upset I could cry," Lizzie moaned, collapsing into her bed. "He's just about the weirdest person I've ever met."

"Oh stop judging. It's only the first day, he could get better," Jane was brushing out her hair.

"Kitty and Lydia are so lucky, tomorrow Auntie is taking them into Boston for another soldier convention."

"Who knows, maybe she'll take you along. I have to stay here and study for my exams."

"Let's hope so," Lizzie yawned. "I don't think I can bear much more of him, and it's only been four hours."

Their Aunt did allow Lizzie to come with them to Boston, but the downside was that Collins insisted upon coming. So instead of being able to hide somewhere in the house for a few minutes, she got to be trapped in a city with the man. This weekend was not going the way she would have liked, and she couldn't even count the days until Collins left because he was staying indefinitely.

"This is George!" Lydia introduced Lizzie and Collins to a tall soldier. Lizzie was less than enthusiastic, even though this soldier was attractive, he was about the thirtieth one she'd met that day.

"George Wickham, private," he shook her hand first. His grip was strong and his eyes captivating, and this caught Lizzie's attention.

"Hi, I'm Lizzie. Kitty and Lydia's sister."

"Oh yes, they've both talked about you. Briefly, but yes I've heard of you." He smiled, completely ignoring Mr. Collins. "Would you like to walk with me?"

"Sure, you can walk with us," Lizzie smiled a little at the look of disappointment that crossed his face for a moment. 'Poor thing,' she thought, 'he actually believed I was going to walk alone with him after just meeting him. He's not THAT cute.' Kitty, Lydia and Collins were internally fuming, each believing that someone had just stolen their beaux from under them.

Though Lizzie and Wickham walked ahead of the others, Lizzie made sure that they were always within eyesight. He showed her around to the different booths, and at one point asked of her interest in officers. She replied to each of his questions in a manner that even surprised herself. 'I'm being a flirt!' she frowned.

"So I hear that the famous William Darcy has come to your school? Or at least that's what Kitty and Lydia've been telling me. Don't mean to offend, but they're not the most reliable source."

"It's not offending, it's true. Yeah, Darcy and Bingley are going to school with us."

"And um," he began conversationally. "How close are you with them? They're both only a grade older than you right?"

"Yeah, they're both alright. I tend to like Bingley more than Darcy, but you know."

George seemed to relax for a second. "Yeah."

Just then Aunt Phillips came up behind them. "Dears, it's time for us to go."

George stopped and turned around. "Well then, I insist upon escorting you to your taxi."

"I'm sure you have a job to do," their Aunt protested. "I wouldn't want to take you away from it."

"It's fine, I'm only a private." His face was cheerful, but his voice held a bit of resentment in it, though that thought flew from Elizabeth's mind when he won the argument and escorted them outside.

"Look! It's Charlie!" Lydia called across the street when they left the building.

And so it was. Charlie Bingley and William Darcy were walking across the street with their bodyguard not very far behind. "Hey girls!" Charlie called across the street and made a move to cross the street. They were halfway across the road when Darcy suddenly stiffened and walked briskly the other way. Lizzie looked up confusedly at Wickham, whose lips were tightened.

"Sorry girls but I've got to get going!" Charlie apologized quickly and turned to run to his quick walking friend who was already a long way away from him. "Hey wait up Will!"

"What was that about? It wasn't something I said, was it?" Lizzie asked.

"No, I'm pretty sure it was me," George muttered darkly. He then woke up and hailed a taxi quickly for them.

"Thank you, young man!" Aunt Phillips thanked him. "Would you like to have dinner with us?"

He smiled, though it seemed a bit forced. "No thank you Mrs. Phillips. I'm busy tonight. But I would love to visit you three anytime I can get down to the Cape."

"Here's our number!" Lydia thrust out a pre made card with the home phone number on it.

"Erm, thank you. See you around!" He closed the door and the taxi began driving away. Lizzie turned around, and the last thing she saw was George Wickham looking nervously down the street that Bingley and Darcy had turned into.

"What a nice young man," their Aunt commented. Lizzie didn't even get a word in before Lydia launched into a story about how she met him.

So Lizzie just closed her eyes and ran over the events of the day, sensing that things didn't quite add up.


	7. Chapter 7

George called fairly frequently over the next week, and though Lizzie was very suspicious, she found she liked the attention. It was a nice diversion from Mr. Collins who was trying, rather unsuccessfully, for her to like him. George even had business on Cape Cod once that week and popped in to say hello. He stayed for dinner and Mrs. Bennet quickly became infatuated.

That night Lizzie decided to take a walk with him before the sun went down and they discussed many things. Lizzie was surprised to find that they both had similar tastes in music and several other things. He mentioned before he had to go that he would be down in Cotuit again next weekend.

"My best friend's birthday party is next Saturday, but I'm sure you can come over before then, since it starts at four." In double history the next morning, Lizzie mentioned her meeting up with Wickham again.

"You know, he can come if he wants to right? I'm inviting your whole family," Charlotte remarked. She was a little jealous over the attention that her friend was getting by the member of the opposite gender, but decided to overlook it and be happy for her friend. "Unfortunately your mother had me on speaker when I told her and that annoying man that you keep on telling me about overheard. He's going to come too."

Lizzie made a face. "Ew. All I wanted was an entirely full day away from Mr. Collins." Charlotte laughed.

"Don't worry, you can sleep over for a day and leave whenever you want. You're always invited."

Lizzie sighed in relief. "You're a godsend Charlotte."

"I try," Charlotte grinned.

The celebration of her friend's adulthood was a small but nice party. Charlotte felt uncomfortable inviting Bingley and Darcy so it was even smaller, having only the Bennet's, Wickham, and a few other friends and relatives. It was indoors since it wasn't all that hot out yet but they all had fun.

It wasn't long before Elizabeth had introduced both herself and George to everyone and they found themselves on a couch with a drink.

"Is Darcy showing up?" Wickham asked conversationally. "I thought he and his friend were part of your little group."

Elizabeth shrugged. "Not really, I mean we talk to them and stuff but Charlotte didn't feel too comfortable about inviting them to her party so she didn't." George brightened considerably, so much that Lizzie got curious. "Why are you always asking about Will?"

His mood darkened again. "Oh. Well, we used to be friends back when he first started acting. My father needed money so he started me off really young as a child actor. Darcy and I are both the same age and we met on Sesame Street, shared crayons and such. He invited me over to his house a lot, and our fathers had cookouts and went golfing together and all. Or families were really close for a good ten years, but then his dad died. He left me some money, which I guess Darcy was jealous of. He only gave me less than half of what Mr. Darcy left me. But then, when my dad died I... started my own, er, small business and I needed what was left of the money. But Darcy refused to give it to me." He was quiet for a moment. "I was bankrupt and my business floundered. So I joined the military, and here I am," he ended bitterly.

Lizzie thought over everything that George had said, and since she got good vibes from Wickham she decided that he was telling the truth. "Oh George, I'm so sorry! I never thought Will could be that mean. I know he's mean now, but that's terrible!"

"I know," George replied sarcastically. "I guess it would be truthful to say that we're not friends anymore. That's why he so rudely ignored me. He's just like his godmother."

"Who's his godmother?"

"Mrs. Catherine Bourgh, the ex- fashion designer. Do you know of her?"

"Yes, yes I do," Lizzie replied, startled. "Mr. Collins is a renter of one of her homes!"

"Ugh, she's a tyrant. The meanest lady I've ever met, just like Darcy only he knows how to be quiet. She never shuts up. She'll criticize your eyelashes if you let her get close enough. I hope, for your sake, you never meet her." His eyes were narrowed into slits and his fists were clenched so Lizzie rested her head against his shoulder George took a deep breath and relaxed himself. His face turned into a lopsided smile and Elizabeth took her head off his shoulder.

"What?"

"You know what we should do?" he said in a teasing voice.

Lizzie was a tad surprised at his sudden change in manner, but played along. "What?"

"You should go to prom with me," he asked confidently. Lizzie was shocked.

"Uh, sure! Will you be around?" Lizzie was stunned, she hadn't thought she'd even be going, let alone with an actual date.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. When is it?" he asked carelessly.

Lizzie thought for a moment before responding. "Near the end of May, I think."

"Hmm, yeah I'm pretty sure I'll be down." He grinned at her and she smiled a little back. It had happened so fast Lizzie wasn't sure if she was excited about it or not. They still barely knew each other, and suddenly they were going to prom together. Lizzie trusted Wickham so she decided to go along with it. This was when Lizzie decided to take the time to look around. Her sisters were arguing about something, Jane was talking to Mr and Mrs Lucas along with her parents, but what really startled her was that Charlotte Lucas herself was laughing at something William Collins had said.

Besides this disturbance, the rest of the evening went along fairly well, they ate cake and had food and Charlotte opened up her presents. Before they all knew it it was time to leave. Elizabeth said goodbye to Wickham and her family and then she went up into Charlotte's room.

Charlotte was quiet through most of the movie they were watching, and Lizzie got suspicious. "What's wrong Charlotte? You're being very quiet. And you look kind of pale."

Charlottes bottom lip trembled a little and she paused the film. "Oh you'll never guess what happened to us!"

"What?! Who, us?"

"My parents! Both of them got fired. They wanted to have this party for me, but after this I... I don't know what's going to happen. We've always been lower middle class... they told me that even with scholarships they won't be able to send me to college!"

Lizzie pulled her friend into a hug and handed her a tissue. "I'm sure they can, can't they get new jobs?"

Charlotte pulled back and replied bitterly. "It turns out they've been fired for months and months and they didn't tell me or any of my siblings. They've been going out for interviews but nobody's hiring since the economy's so bad!"

"Not even Dunkin Donuts or Stop and Shop?" Lizzie asked desperately.

Charlotte shook her head violently. "The closest Dunkin Donuts that's hiring is in Fair Haven. We'd have to move!"

"You can't move, senior year is next year!"

"I know! Lizzie, they have to find something, they've just got to!"

"I know, I know..." Elizabeth pulled Charlotte to her again and listened to her best friend's sobs.

***

"I don't believe it," Jane protested stubbornly. "Who could possibly be that mean to someone?"

"I'll bet Darcy can," Elizabeth negatively pondered out loud. "You know, he doesn't talk very much but I feel as if he's always judging me."

"Has he ever actually said anything negative towards you?"

"Well, that's typically Caroline's job," Lizzie admitted. "He stands up for me sometimes. But he's just such a snob!" she ended venomously. "I wouldn't doubt if he did all that to George and more!"

"You've known Will longer, and George for only a short time," Jane added reasonably. "Maybe you've got your facts mixed up."

"I don't think so," she disagreed. "Anyway, I'm just excited for the prom."

"I'm not!" Jane exclaimed. "I have exams before then! Ugh."

"Did Bingley ask you to go with him yet?" Elizabeth asked slyly, provoking a blush out of her sister.

"No! Besides, who says he wants to go with me anyway?"

"I'll bet he does, just you wait."


	8. Chapter 8

Finally it was time for prom. Jane completed all of her IB exams with as much difficulty as is normally expected for such exerting tests, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she passed every single test and would receive the full International Baccalaureate degree. She had been accepted to several colleges and had chosen to go to Boston College so she'd be close to her family. Secretly, Lizzie thought her a little foolish. Jane was bound to stay in the same place for her entire life unless her parents forced her out, and her mother was such a driving force it would take a miracle for her father to convince Jane to go out and be her own person. If only Charlie and Jane would just become boyfriend and girlfriend! They'd been playing in an emotional arena for an entire school year now, and Lizzie was tired of it.

After much prompting from almost everybody, Charlie had finally plucked up enough courage to ask Jane to prom. It'd happened pretty romantically and Lizzie was extremely proud that she'd had a part in it all. It was her job to tell her sister that Mr. O'Donnell had a vital question about her last english grade. That was all she needed to hear, and Jane sped off to see her teacher but was greeted when she opened the classroom door to Charlie holding a rose. He had his iTouch on speakers and had Crush by David Archuleta on. On the whiteboard he wrote 'Prom?' in block letters and Charlie told Lizzie later that Jane looked as if she would faint.

Dress shopping with Jane was always, hm, is fun the right word? With Jane everything was always 'if you like it' 'that color looks so adorable on you!' 'well, which one do you like better?' and Lizzie always felt frustrated. And Jane was always asking for advice and sometimes looked put out when Lizzie critiqued. That's the exact reason why Lizzie asked Charlotte to come along. They'd all decided on dresses that matched them perfectly after a few grueling hours, but when it was all over Lizzie found herself more excited than ever for prom.

Lizzie had a bit of a heart attack when Charlotte told her that she'd be going to prom with Collins, but Lizzie figured that it was better to go with a creepy and greasy not-quite clergyman than not go at all, which is what Charlotte threatened to do if no one asked her. The most pressing problem for Lizzie, however, was George. He seemed to have dropped off the face of the Earth and it was impossible to get ahold of him.

"He'll come through," Charlotte assured her the night before prom.

"Yeah," Lizzie answered affirmatively, more to assure her doubting self than actually believing it. "I sent him all the information in a Facebook chat. He was probably too busy to respond, but he definitely got it. I mean," she sounded desperate now, even to herself. "who just decided not to check Facebook?"

Strange things were going on in the school. Lydia and Kitty's bras seemed to climb up their chests the closer prom came, there was definitely much more giggling going on, relationships that were sinking were gasping for air just a few weeks longer until the dance was all over, and the strangest of couples were pairing up. Lizzie nearly burst out laughing when Charlie complained of his sister going to prom with Darcy. "But he doesn't even like her!" he protested, confused as to why her face was scrunching up and she was biting her lip.

The night of the prom the Bennet house was in a frenzy, Kitty and Lydia were crying incessantly, Jane was a blushing mess, and Lizzie still hadn't heard a word from George. After two hours of preparation, the girls were finally dressed.

The parents gathered in the front lawn to document their beautiful girls in pictures. Lizzie looked gorgeous in her baby blue floor length dress, while Charlotte went with a dress of a similar style only in a very pale pink. The cut wasn't too low, nor too high. The straps were decorated with some fake rhinestones, and they both wore black pumps. Jane simply blew everyone away in her yellow dress that went down to her knees and flared out. Her blonde hair was curled more than usual while the other two girls decided to keep their hair up. Lizzie's was half in a twist with half her hair coming down in a single curl, while Charlotte kept her hair up in just a twist.

Charlie couldn't stop smiling and frequently brushed off invisible specks of dust on his white jacket and kept fixing his yellow tie as a nervous habit. Collins did something to make his hair look even greasier, and it creeped Lizzie out how her best friend and the to- be priest kept looking at one another. Darcy and Caroline didn't speak at all, and even though they were dates, they acted as though they hardly knew each other. Caroline was donned in a red, short, almost cocktail dress, while Darcy didn't even make an attempt to match and just wore a classic plain black suit.

Lizzie tried to be happy for everyone, but Wickham still hadn't arrived.

"Hm, seems your date stood you up," Lydia sniffed, happy that at least someone else was having a night as miserable as she was.

"Don't say that Lydia! He probably just got lost and is waiting for you at the hall," Jane assured Lizzie and hugged her.

"Is there anything I can do?" Charlie asked anxiously as the parents reloaded their cameras.

Lizzie shook her head. "Nothing more than I've been doing all day. No one can get in touch with him. Thank you Charlie." He nodded, upset at her disappointment. 'I look foolish, having a date but standing by myself in all these pictures,' Lizzie thought glumly as she tried to smile for the camera. 'This is worse than writing an internal assessment in a day!'

What Lizzie didn't notice was the sympathetic, yet knowing looks thrown her way on the sly by Darcy. He had his hand awkwardly on Caroline's hip and his smile seemed more like a grimace. Caroline was fuming internally at the fact she had to take pictures with the people she hated most in the world. It seemed that almost half the group just couldn't wait for the night to just end.

It ended up that Lizzie's worst fears were confirmed as she went to the The Cape Codder, a nice and well known restaurant, where the dance was taking place and the soldier was nowhere to be found.

"Lizzie, I insist. To make you feel better I simply order you to dance with me for at least two dances," Mr. Collins announced heroically, much to Lizzie's displeasure.

"Really, that's okay. Have fun with Charlotte," she almost begged.

"No," Mr. Collins raised his hands in protest. "I promised your mother I would take care of you. Now, I won't leave you all by yourself."

"But I like being by my-"

"Lizzie, it's okay," Charlotte interrupted her. "I don't mind, you look so sad." Lizzie's heart sunk as her only alliance surrendered.

She tightened her lips. "Fine. But there had better be a six inch radius between us!" She stormed into the dancing hoard with an ecstatic Collins on her heels.

"You know Lizzie," Collins began as they started to dance. Well, he was sort of moving every muscle in his body randomly while Lizzie shifted from one foot to the other, hearing the snickers of her classmates echoing in her head. "You've turned into quite a beautiful young girl. You know, I think my favorite memory of you would have to be when you accidentally flung that spoonful of soup at me. You gave me the napkins next to you as if you knew it was going to happen. You know, that is the kind of er, kindness, that Ms. Bourgh adores..."

At this point Lizzie was just ignoring him and counted down the seconds until two songs would be up. When they finally were she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh is that two already? Dearie me, that went fast!"

"Time flies," Lizzie grimaced and nearly ran back to where Charlotte was sitting. "Have fun with him, feel free to dance the night away." And with that she ran to the bathroom. Sitting down on a closed toilet seat, she put her hands on her head to try and calm her headache. "This is the worst night ever..." she moaned to herself. 'Damn Wickham!' she thought venomously. She then corrected herself. "He's probably training somewhere, that's it. He's not avoiding me," she muttered out loud and felt instantly better. "He wouldn't just ignore me! This is prom, for God's sake!" She got up from the toilet seat and left the bathroom feeling better.

Her mood quickly disappeared when she bumped into the broad chest of William Darcy. "Dance with me?" he asked quickly and quietly.

"What?" she asked, surprised. Lizzie didn't think she heard right, how could Darcy ask her to dance? And in such a rude way too!

"Will you dance with me?" He asked slower, his poker face unrelenting.

"Uh, sure," she replied shocked. It was only afterwards when she found herself in the middle of the dance floor when she wondered what had actually happened.

"Ugh, this music is atrocious," he scoffed, hardly dancing at all. Lizzie in effect felt like a fool and stopped moving.

"Yeah, it really is," she admitted, then realized she agreed with Darcy on something and quickly corrected herself. "I mean, I've definitely heard better." He gave a little sarcastic laugh and it was quiet. Lizzie felt more foolish correcting herself than she did agreeing with him, because the laugh he made, in effect, made her feel vulnerable.

After a while, he gave a brief smile. "What?" she asked suspiciously.

"I was just wondering where your partner was," he said monotonously but his eyes mocked her.

"I'm sure he's got a good excuse, probably doing something with himself unlike you, hiding yourself away in a school a million miles away from civilization!" she defended Wickham, though she wasn't quite sure why. All she knew was that she had to fight this man on every word he said out of pure instinct.

"Oh yes, excuses, has anything he's ever said to you been the truth?" he threw back heatedly.

"He's said a lot more truth to me than I bet you have! Now, why is that you don't like him so much?" her voice rose and her fists balled. Any movement they made to the song was now nonexistent as they stared each other down.

"And what exactly has he told you? Probably that I am a cheat! Is that it? Why do you insist upon riling me up?"

"Maybe I'm trying to figure out if you've got any feeling in you at all!" Lizzie intentionally avoided his first questions and skipped to the last.

"And what is the diagnoses?"

Lizzie bit her lip and glared hard at him. "You like using big words and insulting me! Besides that, not much."

He raised an eyebrow and his eyes blazed. "Well, you can know that I hardly enjoy these stimulating talks with you. I probably enjoy them as much as I enjoy Wickham!"

"Now why do you keep bringing him up if you don't like him?" Lizzie asked exasperatedly.

"What has he told you?" he threw back almost the moment the words left her mouth.

"That was _not _my question!"

"Guys, can you be a little quieter?" Charlie interrupted, seemingly coming out of nowhere with Jane on his arm. "For people that are supposed to be dancing, you're not doing very much of it."

"I'm sorry, we were just finished," Darcy mumbled to his friend, closing his eyes and clenching his jaw.

"Yes, we were." Lizzie turned on her heel and left the dance floor, but not before hearing Charlie say something to Darcy.

"Hey, can you be a little nicer, eh buddy?"

She paused for a second, then kept going. She was stopped on the way to the door by Caroline.

"Hey sugarlips, you'd better listen to Darcy," she picked at her fingernails while leaning on the doorframe, not even looking at Lizzie.

"Why should you care?" Lizzie closed her eyes, her hand on the doorknob.

Caroline shrugged. "I don't, but all I'm saying don't trust the bastard, okay?"

Lizzie pushed the door open. "Yeah, thanks Caroline." And with that she stepped into the cool summer night and leaned against the wall. 'They're all just spiteful, all of them!' she sunk to the ground and buried her head in her hands.

It must have been a good ten minutes before Jane came out. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Best night ever," Lizzie moaned.

"You know I don't understand you when you get sarcastic," Jane smiled and rested her head on her sister's shoulder. "You know, I asked Charlie about George."

"What did he say?" Elizabeth braced herself for bad news since so far the reviews for Wickham haven't been all that fantastic.

"Pretty much the same thing as Darcy," Jane sighed. "Oh Lizzie, I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could do!"

"Get Darcy out of this island," Lizzie groaned, resting her head against the brick wall behind her.

"Well, I can't do that, but I can take you out for ice cream tomorrow."

Lizzie was about to say something else, but she paused. "I like ice cream."

Jane laughed. "Now we're going to figure out what happened to your runaway soldier tomorrow okay, but tonight let's have a fun time with Charlie and Charlotte and worry about everything later."

Lizzie closed her eyes for a moment, then stood up and stretched. "Sometimes I really wish I was you," Elizabeth sighed and hugged her sister.

"C'mon, let's get some food."

"I like food," Lizzie pushed open the door to face the rest of the school.

The first half of dinner went fairly well until Charlie made the mistake of saying that Darcy was Ms. Bourgh's nephew. From that point on Collins insisted upon annoying Darcy with questions of his beloved patroness, and for a fleeting second Lizzie hoped that the scowl that now adorned Darcy's face wasn't permanent. 'You don't care about his face,' Lizzie told herself firmly and continued to eat her food, perhaps a bit more vigorously than normal.

Lizzie already felt like cowering under the table, but she nearly acted upon this desire when Collins volunteered to reach one of his second best practice sermons to the group and wouldn't take no for an answer.

The rest of the night went extremely slowly, but Lizzie managed to find other single friends in the hall to talk to and that made the time go along a little faster. The ride back in the limo was quiet, save for the awkward conversations between Charlotte and Collins, and Jane with Charlie.

"Oh Jane dear, did you have a nice time?" Their mother answered the door and Lizzie realized with a bit of panic that her mother had a glass too many of wine for dinner. "Are you dating Charlie yet?" the couple blushed at the question and Darcy's lips tightened at Mrs. Bennet's audacity. "You know I've always said you'd make a lovely couple. You really should you know, it would be the best thing that came to the Cape. Oh Lizzie, so George didn't show up? Well, I'm sure that he had better things to do." She opened the door wider as Lizzie frowned. "Goodnight everybody."

"Goodnight Mrs. Bennet," Charlie murmured, looking at Jane the entire time, who just looked at her shoes bashfully. Darcy had an expression on his face that looked as if he had stuck his nose in moldy cheese.

"Make sure to call Janie," Mrs. Bennet pinched Charlie's cheeks and closed the door. She turned to her girls. "Did you all have a nice time?"

"No," Lizzie said, taking off her shoes.

"That's nice, have a nice night!" their mother sang, climbing the steps to her bedroom.

"She's managed to out embarrass herself and the rest of us," Lizzie said to Jane disbelievingly. "I didn't think it was possible. Huh, funny that. I didn't think this night could get much worse five minutes ago, and look, it did."


	9. Chapter 9

Lizzie woke up the next morning with a killer migraine and the Tylenol that she took seemed to take forever to kick in. At this point she didn't even care about looking like a slob in front of Collins so she kept her hair in its bed made state and put a robe half heartedly over her pajamas.

She didn't fail to notice the looks Collins gave her over the breakfast table that morning, but she had grown so accustomed to them over the past few weeks that she had just assumed that today's stares were no different than any other. She had woken up after everyone else so they finished eating before she did. What Lizzie noticed was that Collins was eating much slower than usual. 'Please dear God make him not want to talk to me,' she thought desperately, tightening the robe around her chest self consciously as he glanced up at her again.

One by one everyone else had left, leaving only Elizabeth and Collins, a fact that Elizabeth tried desperately to ignore as she shoveled the food into her mouth to avoid the now evident confrontation. Collins cleared his throat and Lizzie frowned, a mouthful of toast nearly hanging out of her mouth, knowing what was coming.

"My dear Lizzie, I have observed you carefully over the past few weeks," Collins began. 'Yeah, I know,' Lizzie thought angrily. 'You haven't taken your grubby eyes off me once!' "And I can clearly see what a kind and generous person you are. And that is exactly the kind of person that Arizona needs! Now, you know that I will be leaving your kind house at the beginning of the summer," he continued. 'Which can't come soon enough,' Lizzie said to herself and rolled her eyes.

"What a shame," Lizzie answered sarcastically when Collins paused, clearly fishing for a comment from her. "It's been so nice seeing you every single waking moment of the day."

Collins smiled, completely overlooking the fact that she was insulting him. "I know that your family will miss my calming influence, as I will miss observing all of your fascinating lives. I have always wanted to know how a lady thinks, and it's been the greatest gift I've ever received to be given the opportunity."

Lizzie resisted the urge to retch. "Oh, you're doing a fantastic job. You can read us so well," she commented blankly, gripping the hilt of her butter knife tightly in her left hand, getting angrier and angrier the more he spoke.

"Yes, don't I?" he answered with an arrogant pride. "Oh yes, where was I? I remember now! I can hardly miss out on the opportunity to study your gender to a greater extent, and my humble abode has been absent of pleasant company as of late. This is why it would be the greatest honor if you would come with me to Arizona for the summer."

There was a silence as Lizzie fought to keep the disgusting thought of just her and Collins in a home alone for two months. The toast she had just shoved down her throat threatened to make a glorious comeback and she had to calm herself in order to keep it all down. "Why?" she asked incredulously after a long awkward pause, which Collins took no mind to. While she was keeping down her breakfast he was twiddling his thumbs happily, convinced she was dumbstruck with happiness..

"Why, so I can show off your feminine attributes to Ms. Bourgh of course!" he explained, unsure as to why Lizzie was protesting his kind offer. "You know, I am not taking any of your other siblings to see her, you should be pleased to receive this excellent opportunity..."

"No, I will not live with you alone in a house for my summer! I have to do CAS, I have to work on my extended essay..." 'I don't want to be around you longer than I have to,' Lizzie finished in her head.

"Who knows what might happen? Why, by the end of the summer you might fall in love with me! We could be married by next fall," he wiggled his eyebrows and the expression of disgust that had been fighting its way to Lizzie's face finally gave way and she stood up.

"Mr. Collins, I am barely a legal adult! And for the last time, I will not go to Arizona with you! You're like," she struggled for the right word. "Family," she spat at him. "It's like incest... no means no! You can quit opening and closing your mouth, you look like a fish! I will be staying right here and that is that!"

"Well, I've never been more insulted in my entire life! I am offering you the chance of a lifetime, a chance away from a household of estrogen! Is that not enough for you?" Collins stood up, dramatically waving his spoon around and accidentally flinging some oatmeal left on it onto a painting on the opposite wall. Seeing this, Lizzie cried out and put a hand to her face, quickly losing control.

Lizzie narrowed her eyes at the insult. "Excuse me, but I think you have more estrogen than my sisters combined!"

"And after I complimented you on your manners! Really Lizzie, I am disappointed. Now, I am offering you a chance at learning new things, and you'd better take it soon before I change my mind! I am seriously considering taking back my invitation in light of your recent accusations!"

"And what will it take to get you to completely change your mind, I swear, I'll do anything!" Lizzie waved her arms about in anger.

"Calm yourself! Now, I know I took you by surprise, but I'm sure that once you're given a chance to calm down you'll see the rational side to my suggestion."

The girl could only stare dumbstruck at him, all anger gone and replaced with disbelief. "Can you seriously think that my parents will allow me to go and live alone with a man for two months? Can you be so... so mentally narrow?"

Collins merely shrugged his shoulders. "I already spoke with your mother and she said it would be good for your health..."

"Oh, I'll show her what's good for my health!" Lizzie exclaimed, the anger returning in full measure and she slammed her chair furiously into the table and left the house, the door banging behind her.

The door to the dining room opened and Mrs. Bennet wattled in, holding an ice pack to her head. "What happened?"

"She's not going," Collins pouted and crossed his arms.

Mrs. Bennet frowned. "To hell she's not! Philip!" she called out for Mr. Bennet and left the house in a hurry. She found him in the shed ready to take out the lawnmower. "Lizzie won't go to Arizona with Will!"

Mr. Bennet frowned in response. "So what's the problem? The boy is a creep!"

"He is a creep with connections!" his wife screeched. "She has to go! Follow me!" She stormed off in the way Lizzie left and Mr. Bennet sighed and followed her.

They found Elizabeth near the water a few houses down the block. She was rubbing her temples and had her feet in the sand. "You get back there right now, how dare you leave the house without telling me!"

"I'm not going anywhere with that creep!" Lizzie shot back, angry that her mother had followed her. "Don't you know how to leave me alone?"

"He could be good for your future career, he knows Ms. Bourgh! She's rich, she's influential! She might help us not be poor anymore!"

"We live in Cape Cod, we can't be that poor!" Elizabeth rolled her eyes and Mr. Bennet shrugged his shoulders at her.

"Tell her she has to go," his wife sharply told him.

"What do you think of Collins?" Lizzie's dad asked her gently.

"He's a greasy, stuck up, rude, stalker!"

"There you have it," Mr. Bennet turned to his wife. "I will not have my daughter associating with a stalker."

Mrs. Bennet turned very red and balled up her fists. "Fine, be poor forever I don't care! We'll see if I ever speak to you again!" She turned on her heels and stormed away.

"Sometimes I wonder why I'm still married to her," Mr. Bennet sighed. "And then I realize she'd be dead without my money." Elizabeth smiled a little. "C'mon, let's go back."

The next few days were heaven for Elizabeth, even though finals were quickly approaching, Collins was hardly in the house anymore and her mother wouldn't even speak to her unless it was to tell her off. This wasn't an issue as her mother's voice was more annoying than a bee continuously buzzing in her ear for hours on end, and it was more of a treat than anything. Where Collins was going every day for the next two weeks didn't bother Elizabeth all that much.

Finals were torture as usual, as the days dragged on and the two hour tests seemed to get harder every day. Soon enough though it was all over and it was summertime again. The sun was shining hard, and everyone was off to the beach. Elizabeth was insanely jealous of Bingley, Darcy and Jane because they were all finished with their exams. That, and she had another year to deal with Caroline.

"Hey, school's out!" Charlotte had been pretty distant from Lizzie lately and felt insanely bad for it, so that's the reason why on the last day she approached her best friend at her locker.

"Yeah," Lizzie smiled. She'd been wondering where her friend was always sneaking off to during lunch times but decided to not say anything about it at the very beginning of the vacation.

"Do you want to do something?" Charlotte asked hopefully. Lizzie nodded, and they went out for lunch. They laughed and talked about everything that had happened since the prom, and Charlotte had was practically silent when Lizzie mentioned Collins' request.

They were leaving the cafe when they ran into George. "Lizzie, I thought I might find you somewhere on Main Street," he told her breathlessly.

"Well, I'm here," she replied, unsure how she felt. She was still pretty upset at him for missing the prom and then not calling, but she decided to hear him out. She glanced at Charlotte, who seemed a bit hurt that Wickham had not said hello to her, but she shrugged just the same.

"I just came to tell you how extremely sorry I am for leaving you by yourself at the dance. And then not answering anything," he took a deep breath. Lizzie raised an eyebrow, Darcy's warning about excuses coming to mind as he stuttered out an apology. "I was training in Washington and didn't have time to text, email, write, nothing. I'm so sorry, but at least I was serving our country right?" he grinned and Lizzie smiled uncertainly back. "Can I drive you two back home?"

"No, thank you, Charlotte brought her car to school, I'll be going back with her," Lizzie replied, trying to keep any emotion from her voice.

"Oh," his voice fell. "Well, if you need anything, I promise I'll answer this time because the training is over and I have computer rights now." He smiled. "I'll see you two ladies around, allright?"

In the car Charlotte frowned. "It's like I wasn't even there! Ugh, anyway. Do you forgive him?"

Lizzie thought to herself for a moment. "Yes, I think I will. It's not as if he was laying in his bed purposefully ignoring me."

Charlotte shook her head. "That's still the strangest thing I've ever heard. The army not allowing their soldiers to write? That's pretty strange."

"He didn't say they weren't allowed to, only that he didn't have time," Lizzie pointed out.

Charlotte pursed her lips. "True. Be careful, Lizzie." Lizzie only shrugged. "Do you want to go to the beach? Did you bring your swimsuit?"

"Yeah, I was planning to go anyway so I put it on under my clothes," Lizzie answered, grateful at the change of subject.

When she came home from the beach with Charlotte the day school ended she went into her room and saw Jane lying on her bed. Elizabeth rushed over quickly and hugged her. "What's wrong?"

She handed her a letter, her eyes still closed. "Just don't show anyone else okay?"

"Wait, how can Charlie just leave?" Lizzie asked, confused, re- reading the letter to see if she read it wrong. Caroline had written Jane saying that they had left because Charlie had gotten a job in California suddenly and wouldn't get the job unless he left right away. Charlie wasn't the type to just pick up and run at a moment's notice, especially with Jane involved. He followed Jane around like a puppy. "Why would he, without even calling? And Caroline hasn't even graduated yet?"

Jane sat up in bed. "I don't know Elizabeth," she replied sadly. "I guess I didn't mean all that much to him."

Lizzie sat next to her and tilted up her sisters chin. "Don't you dare say that! Don't you even think that! You're worth two of all of them! If you can't give you the pleasure of writing himself then he's not even worth it."

Jane bit her lip, clearly not believing a word. "Thanks Lizzie. Can I be alone for a while?" Lizzie pulled back, surprised.  
"Uh, sure. Just call if you need me, okay?" she told her sister gently and left the room. She went to the adjoining television room and plopped down on the couch, rested her head on her hand. "I'll bet Caroline did all of this," she whispered determinedly. "It's all her fault! Who would ever want to hurt Jane?"

***

Another week had gone by with no word from Bingley and Jane seemed to get even quieter than she was before.

At this point Elizabeth was sure that the whole world had gone mad, and the next Friday's events only proved it. She had been unable to catch Charlotte at an available moment all week, so when she saw the slight figure of her best friend coming towards her a bit timidly, she almost didn't believe it.

The Bennet household was in a frenzy once again, and Elizabeth had been coming outside to escape the craziness of it all. She was sitting in a lawnchair, a non- fiction book cradled to her chest, a notebook on her lap. She was taking notes for her extended essay and the sound of footprints on the crisp grass stirred her out of her studying frenzy.

"Charlotte, what's been going on?" Lizzie asked, and though she was a bit confused she still hugged her friend, and got even more nervous when Charlotte didn't reciprocate as strongly as normal. "What's wrong?"

"Well, you see... that's what I've come over to talk to you about," Charlotte began nervously, studying her shoes.

Elizabeth pursed her lips and folded her arms. "Is this about where you've been sneaking off to?"

Charlotte furrowed her brows but answered her. "Yes, well do you remember when Will asked you to come to Arizona with him?"

"You mean Collins, yeah, how could I forget?" Lizzie responded, raising an eyebrow. 'Since when did she start calling him Will?' she thought to herself.

"Well," she continued, seeming to gather strength as she talked. "He's asked me to come instead."

Lizzie was shocked and put both hands on her friend's shoulders. "I thought you couldn't go, you're family is running out of money!"

"Yes well, you see... He's paying for my ticket and, er, it's an indefinite stay."

"You mean you might stay for more than the summer?" Lizzie asked incredulously. 'What has the world come to?' she asked herself furiously. 'Everyone's gone crazy!'

"Yes Lizzie," Charlotte answered firmly. "My family hardly has any money and they are now taking money out of my college fund. I will stay in Arizona for as long as I have to, even if that means switching to another IB school in Phoenix."

"But-"

"I'm going to college Lizzie!" Charlotte spoke back sharply, interrupting her. "This seems like a better alternative than going on my knees to the government and being in debt for the rest of my life! I will not do that to me or my parents!"

"So you'll just be in debt to Collins then?"

"Men can be divorced-"

"So you're going to use him and then leave him, oh I thought you were above that-"

Charlotte looked on the verge of crying now. "No! That's only a worst case scenario! Lizzie," she really was crying now, "I plan on working as hard as I can to pay him back. Who knows what could happen! All I came over here for was your blessing." She was breathing hard now, trying to reel back in the tears.

Lizzie's jaw was clenched, the words running through her head like a ticker tape. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "You have it."

"Thank you," Charlotte gasped, hugged her friend, then turned on her heel and ran from the house.

Slowly Elizabeth sunk to the ground and stared up at the blue sky. "How am I the only sane one left?" she asked out loud to herself just as Lydia screamed from somewhere in the house.


	10. Chapter 10

"You can read this one too, if you want," Jane told Lizzie the next weekend solemnly. Lizzie had been acting pretty angry that week due to the fact that her best friend was now in another state with the creepiest man in the world. Everyone thought she'd be happy with Mr. Collins departure, but she was miserable as ever. Now she was going to be lonely senior year with not even her favorite sister by her side.

"I wish she'd just leave you alone! It's bad enough that she started all this now she's just rubbing it your face. Did she even say one word to you all year?" Lizzie grabbed the letter grumpily and sat down to read it on the bed. "Besides, why do people keep sending letters to you? This is the twenty first century!"

"Oh come on Lizzie, you're just hurt. I'm sure his agent just had a film set up for him and he had to go. He probably just doesn't have enough time for me."

"That's bull. He called you at least once a week, not to mention texted you a billion times a day," Elizabeth snorted, her eyes narrowing the longer she read the letter. "Ah, it seems that our dear Mr. Bingley will be staying away for the entire summer in California. How typical."

"And if he comes back I'll be in college," Jane said negatively, brushing out her hair slowly.

"That's just not nice." Lizzie shook her head.

"How is Charlotte?"

"I haven't talked to her," Lizzie replied, shrugging though the mention of her friend stung.

Jane frowned. "You know, that's not right either. You've got to talk to her."

Her sister sighed. "I will, I will. I've just got to calm down first, it's all been very stressful."

"Do you think they're going to get married?" Jane asked curiously.

Lizzie shrugged again disgustedly. "Probably. I just don't like the situation, but I suppose they're both pretty alike in personality and won't have many fights. She just wants to have a future, it's really bad that the only way she could see herself having one is through Collins."

"You've got to do what you've got to do," Jane commented, tying up her hair.

"Uh- huh. I'm going to go downstairs for lunch, do you want me to bring you up anything?" Jane shook her head.

When she got to the kitchen she was greeted by her aunt and uncle. "Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom, you came all the way over from California just to see us?" she smiled for the first time all week as she hugged the both of them.

"We just thought we'd drop in for a surprise visit with all of you. We have a pretty free few months, and ironically so do all of you, so we just thought we'd come over!" Her uncle winked at her and pulled a little on her ponytail.

"Well, how long are you staying?" their second oldest niece asked excitedly.

"For about a week, then we were thinking we would take Jane back with us for a while," their aunt answered conversationally. "We heard she's been feeling a little down lately."

"Yeah, I think she'll feel better just by seeing you here!" she smiled. "Would you like me to get her for you?"

The week with her uncle and aunt was eventful, and Jane brightened at the idea of having one last vacation before college started. Finally it was time for her to go and the entire family gathered around the car.

"Make sure you get to talk to Bingley," Mrs. Bennet whispered to Jane through the window and Mr. Bennet shot his wife a disapproving gaze.

"Text me, okay?" Elizabeth asked. Over the week she had come to terms that Charlotte was finally gone and that she did what she had to. She still blamed Caroline for everything though, and no amount of persuasion from Jane could convince her otherwise.

"I'll text you every day if you want me to." Jane smiled.

"We'll be back with her before you know it," her uncle assured her, kissing her on the cheek through the window of the rental car.

Jane promised to keep in touch and she did. She spoke of Caroline's cold dismissal when she arrived at the Bingley's mansion, she talked of all the stars she'd met, all the things she'd seen and she asked for Charlotte.

Charlotte left soon after Jane did for Arizona but before she did she made Elizabeth promise that she would come sometime over the summer.

"I didn't want to go to Arizona, but it seems I'll be going anyway," Elizabeth emailed Jane the day after her friend left.

"Yes, well, at least it's to visit a friend. How is George?" she had written back.

This question puzzled Lizzie, for she had not spoken with George for a fairly long time. She checked on his Facebook page and was startled to find that he was in a relationship with someone called Veronica King. After some snooping on her personal information, Lizzie determined that she had some money.

"Hm, he seems to be in a relationship. Why are people so rude? It would have taken two seconds to tell me," Lizzie pouted in her answer back. She thought about George's lack of communication for a moment and decided that the feelings she had ever had for him were hardly romantic and it would be best to just sever ties.

"What are you going to do?" came Jane's concerned reply.

"If he calls, I'll answer but I don't want to cause more drama than it's worth. I'll just wait it out and see. I expected myself to be more hurt if he ever rejected me, but right now I feel nothing. Maybe it's best to not have a boyfriend anyway."

It took about a while for Jane to respond back, but when she did it was merely, "Good idea."


	11. Chapter 11

**By this time it should be March, but here it's still July :)**

Lizzie had promised her father that she would be extremely careful and after much persuasion she was finally able to convince him to send her to Arizona by herself. Charlotte met her at the airport and they hugged each other tightly.

"Lizzie, do you forgive me yet?" Charlotte asked with imploring eyes and a small smile.

"Of course," she declared. She still hadn't accepted the decision or thought it right, but she still wanted to have a healthy relationship with her best friend. On the way to Charlotte's new home they talked about everything.

"You'll be sleeping in my room," Charlotte grinned. "Sometimes it can get pretty lonely."

Lizzie breathed out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank God you're not in the same room!"

Charlotte wrinkled up her face. "He's a priest Lizzie! Anyway, I'm of age," she finished, mock haughtily. "And Mrs. Bourgh is pretty decent I guess. She's a tad old fashioned and is very prone to temper tantrums but besides that she's just fantastic."

"Oh yeah, okay. As long as I don't speak I should be okay," Lizzie joked and they all laughed. "Goodness, it is hot!" She breathed out as she stepped out of the car when they arrived at the house. It was a modest home, with few outside decorations. Lizzie noticed a few touches on the exterior of the home that were done obviously by Charlotte's hand, and she sensed the hesitancy of her friend to make herself too at home at Collin's house. Glancing down and seeing a few of Charlotte's signature garden adornments around the yard startled her, for it was never a factor in her equation that her best friend would actually like living there. The fact that she bothered to decorate the home suggested contentment in the arrangement,something that made Lizzie somewhat uneasy.

"Yeah, but it's in the middle of the summer so it should get cooler," Charlotte shrugged. "I like it here, it's pretty much the same all year long. And I don't have to shovel."

"Sounds nice," Elizabeth smiled. She personally enjoyed the change in seasons because it gave her a break between the scorching heat of summer and the freezing cold of winter, and with a new season often came a new state of mind. The consistent planes of Arizona didn't hold much for Lizzie, but there was a certain magic to the desert flowers and the various shapes and sizes of the cactus scattered naturally about the state.

"It is, and I don't have to rake leaves, or pull out weeds, or shovel snow or anything! And Will likes to work around the house so he takes care of the lawn, so I basically have the entire house to myself the whole day!"

Lizzie smiled tightly. "What have you been doing to keep busy?"

Charlotte shrugged. "We live in an area where a lot of retirees live, so there are a ton of country clubs that, frankly, we can't afford. Especially with me going to college after this year. So I just work around the house. I'm painting one of the rooms, moving things around. He's given me a lot of freedom," The spark in her eye was unmistakable, this and Charlotte's casual use of 'we' together made Lizzie nervous, but she remained quiet. Freedom was something Charlotte had felt she lacked in her own home, having so many other siblings, so it was obvious this sudden gift had taken her off her feet.

"So he's paying for your college then?"

"Well, not entirely," Charlotte replied, the frown lines only beginning to make their way onto her, until only a second ago, carefree face. "It's expected that I finish high school in an IB school in Phoenix next year and that I get a decent scholarship. Mrs. Bourgh has been kind enough to promise to lend Will the money, and will only withdraw it if I lose my scholarship."

"You won't lose it," Lizzie told her reassuringly, her voice almost cracking. "You can do anything."

"Yes well," Charlotte looked at the ground. "Do you want to go inside?"

The inside was only slightly more extravagant than the outside, and it was evident Charlotte was putting a lot of work into the home. The house was painted in all light colors, and the majority of the furniture was made of wood. Some of the pieces looked very old, there were some new ones thrown in and Lizzie assumed that was Charlotte trying to replace the old furniture with new. "This looks fantastic. My only question is, how did it look before?"

"Much worse," Charlotte admitted. "I've gotten a lot done so far. I hope to get another room or so done before the school year starts up again."

"Have you considered being an interior decorator? This really is fantastic," Lizzie praised and Charlottes cheeks flushed with pleasure.

"I hadn't before, but now I'm just beginning to. When I think of the possibilities of each of the rooms something just... clicks!"

"Do it," she encouraged. "You're fantastic at art anyway." Charlotte smiled at her.

"How about I leave you to unpack, I'll be in the kitchen getting dinner ready."

"So you're cooking for him now too?" Lizzie asked with mock outrage. Charlotte only smiled happily back at her and closed the door behind her, leaving Lizzie to unpack her things.

After she had changed from the clothes she had worn on the airplane all morning into something more comfortable, she went downstairs to see if Charlotte needed any more help preparing dinner.

"You look nice," Charlotte beamed, looking her friend up and down.

Lizzie waved her hand. "It's only a sundress. Do you need any help?"

"Well, it's a purple sundress. Purple is my favorite color! And no, I don't. Well... you can help by setting up the table. We typically eat dinner together here," she gestured with her head towards a small wooden table in the center of the room, as both hands were full. "Unless we have people coming over."

"So I don't count as people?" Lizzie joked as she found the cutlery and began making three places, making sure that Collins would be as far away from her as possible.

"No, you're family," Charlotte replied warmly. Lizzie had just finished putting the napkins down when the front door opened loudly and a red faced Mr. Collins barged into the kitchens. "What is it, Will?"

"Jennings just came over, Mrs. Bourgh has just invited us over for dinner tonight. No," he checked his watch. "In twenty minutes. He said she wants to meet Elizabeth."

"That's wonderful," Charlotte was stunned. "But I already made dinner for us!"

"Can you put it in some tupperware? We'll eat it tomorrow!" Collins replied brusquely, already halfway down the hallway mumbling about the inappropriateness of his wardrobe.

Charlotte sighed. "This happened a few days ago too, though we were halfway done eating."

"Do I look okay?" Lizzie asked.

Charlotte looked her up and down again. "Yes," she said finally.

"You look fine," Collins said, suddenly reappearing in a new, dressier jacket. "Those hobo clothes you were wearing either wouldn't have cut it though."

In a matter of minutes they were leaving the house, and before they got into the car, Lizzie had time for just one more question. "I didn't really look like a hobo, did I?"

***

"Wow," Lizzie breathed in awe as she raked her eyes over every bit of the mansion, towering over the desert like a queen. The home seemed to be lost in time, though it was styled extremely modernly. Everything was painted in bright colors as to not soak up too much of the scorching sun, and there was a lovely garden filled with plants Lizzie didn't even think grew in the desert.

"It's even prettier on the inside," Charlotte told Lizzie, seeing her friend's face change as the house came into view.

"Impossible." She shook her head.

She found herself corrected, however, as the butler met them at the front door and escorted them directly to where Mrs. Bourgh was lounging on a couch. While the Bingley household was decorated tastefully but modern, this new mansion was just as tasteful, but perhaps not quite as modern. There were definitely more statues and works of art in Mrs. Bourgh's house. Lizzie enjoyed art very much, though for some reason these paintings disturbed her a little. They all had the common theme of a conqueror, and she took this as a sign to mean that Mrs. Bourgh might in fact be as dry as the desert she lives in, and she prepared herself.

"So, this is your friend, Charlotte?" Mrs. Bourgh asked, unsmiling. The intimidating presence of the woman gave Lizzie the strange desire to curtsy, but she quickly talked herself out of it.

"Yes ma'am, this is Elizabeth Bennet."

"Pleased to meet you," Lizzie smiled and stuck out her hand. Perhaps a bit too quickly, for Mrs. Bourgh made no move to grasp it in greeting, instead she gestured to another couch on the opposite side of the room. They were now so far away that Lizzie figured she would have to shout in order to be heard by the lady, a fact that the owner of the house probably factored in while designing the room.

Mrs. Bourgh pursed her lips together and smoothed out her closely cropped gray hair. She was dressed elegantly for someone that hadn't left the house all morning, as Charlotte whispered to her in the car, with her gray two piece suit and faint pink accessories. It was evident that this lady had been someone remarkable in her time and demanded a certain level of respect. Lizzie knew, even from the moment she laid her eyes on her that she wouldn't like the woman, but she realized with a start that she respected Mrs. Bourgh's ability to make a room be quiet without saying a word.

"My daughter, Anne, should be back from the gardens in a moment. The girl likes to run rampant around outside instead of studying like a proper girl should." The lady's lips pressed together in a thin line. Lizzie bit back the desire to fight for the girl she hadn't met yet, telling her host that it was summer. No one, except IB students perhaps, studies during the summer.

The girl in question came in only a minute later, looking a bit red faced from what Lizzie guessed was running. The pink creeping up her cheeks was a major contrast against her pallid face. 'If rabbits were human, she'd be one.' Lizzie thought. 'She looks very vulnerable. Probably because her mother bullies her.'

"Come over here Anne, and introduce yourself to our guests." Her mother sighed at her daughter's entrance, clearly disappointed the girl hadn't bothered to make it more graceful.

"Hello, I'm Anne," Miss Bourgh stuck out her hand and Lizzie grasped it firmly, relieved that she wasn't the only one in the world that still shook hands.

"I'm Lizzie, it's nice to meet you. I'm sure you know Charlotte and... Will, right?"

"Yes, they've both been over several times," Anne spoke, almost with relief. "Since you've never been here before, would you like me to show you around the house?"

Lizzie was startled. She liked Anne very much, and thankfully she seemed nothing like her mother. She wasn't very pretty, but Lizzie now knew that she made up for that in personality. One thing that puzzled Lizzie was that she had been told Anne was sickly, and now seeing her face to face she couldn't see a thing wrong with her, besides being a bit pale. If they became better friends, she had to ask.

"Now where are you two going?" the head of the household asked stiffly. "Dinner should be ready soon."

"Mom, I'm just going to give Lizzie a tour of the house."

"Well, that should be fine. Her name is Elizabeth, child. I was never one for nicknames, that's why I named you Anne. No nickname can come out of that."

"Except everyone in the world besides her calls me Annie," Anne rolled her eyes to her guest once they left the room. "And when we're not around her, I expect for you, too."

Lizzie grinned. "No problem."

"Don't believe a thing she tells you," Annie confided in her as they walked. "She spreads around that I'm as sick as a dog and can't do a single thing. Sure, I am a little pale, but I only have ADHD!"

Lizzie couldn't help herself, she just laughed out loud at that. "That's terrible! That she would do that to you, I mean."

Anne waved her hand as they went from room to room. "It's really no problem. It gives me my solitude, but unfortunately she thinks, for some reason, I can't go outside. That explains my fascination with gardens... and my paleness."

"No offense, but she seems to overdramatize things."

"Oh she does," Anne sighed, adjusting her glasses. "And she can be a bit pushy. If she asks you to do something you don't want to, just do it. Everyone understands. It'll be better for you if you do, because if you don't, it'll be all of your ancestors fault down to the first caveman." And unpleasant sort of grimace found its way on her face and Lizzie briefly wondered what her mother had made other people do to cause such a wince. "I love her though." She looked down at her gold watch. "Dinner should be ready by now. Aw, we only got through half the house!" She frowned.

"It's okay, everything I've seen is wonderful."

"Mother didn't go on a rampage on your appearance the first second she saw you, did she?" Anne asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"Er, no," she responded, confused.

"That must mean she likes you," Anne commented happily as they turned to walk to the dining hall. "She'll probably request that you come again tomorrow. Besides, she told me someone's visiting tomorrow that she wants you to meet."

"Who is it?" Lizzie was curious, for Ms. Bourgh was a major influence in the world and whomever it was, he or she was bound to be pretty fantastic.

"I don't know," Annie replied and rolled her eyes. "When I asked her, she told me that I was too curious and that I'd get myself into serious trouble someday. Honestly, she's impossible."

"Sounds it," Lizzie replied back, now comfortable enough with Annie to share her feelings.

By that time they had reached the dining hall and were assigned to their seats by Ms Bourgh herself. Lizzie was more than relieved over the fact that she was not placed next to Collins, but by Charlotte's side. She felt bad for Anne, however, for she had to deal with Collins' ramblings on subjects that had no relevance to anything the rest of the table was talking about. Lizzie felt as if she was carefully planning on how to get through a field of broken glass every time she wanted to speak. Annie's mother was relentless, disagreeing with anything and everything that came out on anyone's mouth, sometimes even disagreeing with herself. If Annie was right and they were invited back the next evening, Lizzie wasn't sure she'd be able to hold all of her opinions in next to their intensely opinionated host.

Surprisingly, she wasn't attacked all that much. She supposed that could have been because everyone else at the table had made more mistakes than she. First, half the meal wasn't cooked to her liking, so the hostess insulted all of her hired help, from the hedgecutters to the butler. Second, Collins had done something different with his bushes, and Collins was attacked. Lizzie would have felt sorry for him had his red face not been so funny. Third, Anne's lollygagging had finally ended her mother's patience and she was told off for the remainder of the meal.

Dinner seemed to take forever, and when it was over Ms. Bourgh seemed more than happy to kick them out due to the ten other, more important, things she had to do. A rushed invitation to dinner tomorrow as well was thrown out carelessly, much to Lizzie's dismay, and the trio were on their way again.

"Well, it could have been worse," Charlotte sighed.

Lizzie groaned, dreading the following evening.


	12. Chapter 12

Lizzie's day with Charlotte was a nice reminder from the old days, though some things seemed to be different. For one, Charlotte had grown up. She had a, though Lizzie hated to admit it, man in the house and this had brought out her inner woman. They no longer gossiped about girls, giggled about boys, but instead talked of serious things like government and school. Charlotte would be staying with Collins for her senior year, and Lizzie knew it was futile to argue. She had now lost her sister and her best friend. To make her feel better, Charlotte reminded her that since Charlie was gone, Caroline would be also.

This actually made Lizzie feel better, surprisingly.

As the hours passed on and their dinner with the Bourgh's became closer and closer, butterfly's found their way into her stomach for some unknown reason. Charlotte had an idea for her friend's nervousness, the fact that another dinner with the Bourghs would mean another dinner with Ms. Bourgh, but Lizzie couldn't shake the feeling that this was not the case.

Her suspicions were proved correct when they, once again, walked into the living area and saw the tall, dark form of William Darcy gazing out of a window. His companion was not Charlie, but someone entirely different. He was stouter than Darcy, and had blonde hair. Darcy did not notice them at first, but his friend's introduction to the girls and Collins prompted Darcy out of his trance.

"Charlotte, Elizabeth, William, this is... er, William and William," Ms. Bourgh paused for a moment due to the fact that there were three Williams in the room. Annie smirked at the pause and did a little wave to Lizzie. "William, the tall one, is my godson. The other William is my late husband's first son, before he married me."

Lizzie was unaware of the wave. In fact, she was unaware of most of her surroundings, she was so shocked that Darcy was there. She suspected she resembled a frog, with her mouth open wide. The girl couldn't close it either, she merely stared at Darcy in awe.

"Pleased to meet you," the stout William said gently, smiling and sticking out his hand for her to shake. This shook her her out of her temporary attention lapse and gripped his hand firmly. "You can call me Fitsy, everyone else does. My stepmother is the only one that won't... conform."

"Young people don't understand traditions anymore," Ms. Bourgh commented, disgusted. "And William, why aren't you introducing yourself?"

Darcy had been looking at the guests but had made no move to shake hands. "Because I know them all already. I went to school with them." There was something in his deep voice that made Lizzie want him to talk forever, and it took all she had not to turn her head and look in his eyes, though she felt his on her.

"Did you?" Ms. Bourgh was shocked. "Why didn't you tell me this last night, Miss Bennet? You must have known William was my godson."

"It didn't turn up in the conversation, and the fact drifted from my mind."

Ms. Bourgh's lips thinned, sizing her guest up. "Well, I'd love to hear more of your year together in school."

"Lizzie, would you like to finish the tour we started yesterday?" Annie asked, interrupting her mother.

"Impulsive girl," Ms. Bourgh turned furiously to her daughter just as Lizzie breathed out a relieved, "Yes." The host turned back to Elizabeth, having heard her answer and brusquely flourished her hand. "Very well, get out. Come back for dinner."

Lizzie couldn't leave fast enough. The piercing gazes that Darcy was throwing her alone nearly drove her mad, let alone the never ending insulting pit that was her host.

* * *

"What do you do in your spare time, Elizabeth?" Lizzie may have narrowly missed confrontation before in the living area, but because of that the dinner subject was now directed almost entirely to herself. Ms. Bourgh's hounding nearly drove her to scream but she pressed on.

"Mainly reading, ma'am. I don't have much spare time any more, since I started up the I.B."

"You don't do sports?" the lady asked incredulously. "Every young person I know, exempting my ill daughter, plays sports!"

"I plan on playing tennis next year, if I can deal with both homework and sports at the same time."

"You should be able to manage it, the workload isn't too difficult if you know how to handle it," Darcy added quietly from the seat next to her. These were the first words he had said to Lizzie all evening, and she was shocked they were to back her up.

"Even William's little sister, who is in one of the topmost rated high schools in the country, has time for after school clubs and sports."

"With all due respect," Lizzie added, beginning to seeth. "We are number one in Massachusetts, and fifteenth in the country!"

"Besides, Gingy doesn't go to an IB school," Darcy rumbled, not looking at Lizzie but at his aunt.

"Her name is Georgiana, Darcy. If her mother wanted her to be named Gingy than she would have done it." She went back to Lizzie in a matter of seconds, reminding her prey of a lion. "And what instruments do you play?"

"I played the flute until freshman year."

"The flute? That's not a practical instrument at all," Ms. Bourgh scrunched her nose. "The piano or violin is more cultured. If you play the flute, well, you might as well play the triangle." Lizzie swallowed her anger and focused on cutting her meat, perhaps a bit rougher than she might have normally. "How many sisters do you have?"

"Four others, besides me," Lizzie answered evenly, trying not to betray any emotions.

"Oh, your parents should have had at least one boy... who will pass on the family name?"

"Excuse me, but that was not on my parent's main list of priorities. My mother would have kept on trying for a boy, but we couldn't afford another child."

"Where did you learn your manners?" their host asked incredulously. "Barbarians? How dare you be sarcastic with me!"

Lizzie bowed her head, more upset at their rude host than any shame over her sarcasm.

There was a silence for a while until Fitsy interrupted with a jovial laugh. "You say yourself all the time that boys bring nothing but trouble!" he winked at his step mother. "That reminds me of the time you nearly bit my head off when I crashed into your Chinese vase! You were angry as Satan until you realized it was a fake! And how about that other time..." and so Fitsy went on throughout the remainder of dinner, interrupted his stepmother's critiquing words with stories of his childhood.

"Thank you for saving me back there," Lizzie whispered to him as they went back to the living area to wait for dessert.

"Don't worry about it. You can repay me by telling me some stories of your own!"

"About what?" Lizzie asked curiously. In the short time that she knew him, she found Fitsy to be a hilarious person, and a sweet one. She briefly considered flirting, but then decided that the less Christmas dinner she would have to spend with Ms. Bourgh, the happier she would be!

He gestured to his tall friend that was walking behind them. "You can tell me about your adventures with this pirate!" Darcy looked as if he desperately wanted to roll his eyes.

Lizzie was a bit apprehensive, but smiled anyway. "Anything special you want me to talk about?"

"How about the first time you guys met?" Fitsy winked at his friend and Lizzie got even more nervous.

"Well, technically we met at a dance. I don't even know why he bothered to come though, he didn't talk to anyone except Caroline. Besides her, he just sat in the corner and moped."

Fitsy gave her a half smile and punched Darcy in the shoulder. "That sounds like the ol' tyke! I'm surprised he didn't dance with you, you're pretty... well, pretty!"

Lizzie bowed her head in embarrassment. "Well, thank you. I wasn't quite up to his standards."

"That's not tru-" he began, but was interrupted by his stepmother.

"What are you talking so loudly about back there? It sounds like gossip. William, get up here and walk with me," she scolded them. Darcy made a move to go to the front with Annie and Ms. Brough but the elder rolled her eyes. "Not you, the short one."

"She'll never acknowledge me as her son, will she?" he asked out loud in a joking whisper to Lizzie.

"Now!" she screeched from up front.

"Hm, not that I'd want her to," he winked and moved to the front, leaving Darcy and Lizzie walking side by side in an awkward silence.

A few moments of silence passed, and the air grew thick around them. Finally, Darcy cleared his throat. "Hm, I was... ah, wondering if I could drop by tomorrow. I need to give something to Collins." His words were rushed at some points, and slow in others. Lizzie picked up on this and wondered why he should be nervous.

"I don't think it would be a problem," she answered softly as they rounded the corner and went into the room.

"Good," he replied back in his deep voice, almost sounding relieved. They soon parted from each other's side and they took seats on various couches in the room. Fitsy got a game of poker going on one of the tables, much to Ms. Bourgh's displeasure, and the girls huddled together in a small group, all hoping not to be noticed by the host.

Ms. Bourgh, annoyed at sitting all alone, was reduced to insulting everyone's ancestry, including her own daughters, and her rant didn't stop even after Charlotte, Collins, and Elizabeth excused themselves and left the house without staying for dessert. Up until that moment, Lizzie had never felt bad for Darcy, but whenever she thought of Ms. Bourgh's red, angry face and her stinging insults, she wanted to present him with the Nobel Peace prize.

* * *

The next morning Elizabeth had completely forgotten about Darcy's upcoming visit and wished Collins and Charlotte well after breakfast when they set out for Phoenix. They would be gone until dinner, and Lizzie had the car and the house all to herself until they came back. She was just about to take advantage of the car and do some exploring when she saw Darcy's car come up the driveway. She cursed at herself under her breath and left the house, keys still in her hand, to greet him.

"Hello," he said blankly, getting out of the car. He fidgeted with the ends and toyed with the third button of his shirt, which threw Lizzie for a loop because he looked more comfortable than he'd ever had before. The first two buttons were open and he was wearing loose fitting cut offs, and Lizzie surmised that he would hardly be this casual had he not been in the scorching heat of the desert. "I just came to... is Collins here?"

"What? Oh... no, they went to Phoenix. I'm sorry I... forgot to tell them you'd be coming."

"It's alright," he answered quickly, nearly leaping back into his car.

"Would you like to come in?" she asked almost as quickly. After the words rushed out of her mouth, she realized she had no idea why she said them. He was obviously in a rush, why did she try to keep him here?

"Just for a little bit," he replied quietly, almost sounding relieved. Lizzie gave him a thin smile and let him in the house. He was silent for a moment, his left hand deciding if it wanted to rest in his pocket or not. Lizzie took this as another sign of nervousness, though why she could not say. "It's a nice house."

"Yes my friend worked very hard on it."

"Your friend?" he asked distractedly.

"Yes, Charlotte... my friend."

"Oh yes, Charlotte of course." His voice cracked as his eyes ran everywhere but where she was standing. "How is she?"

"You saw her last night, she's fine." Lizzie was beginning to get suspicious, her eyebrows raised as he spent a longer amount of time than necessary to look at a photograph.

"Right, I remember yes..." he was blubbering now.

"Would you like some coffee, Will?"

The use of his name snapped him out of it and he looked straight into her eyes. Lizzie felt an inexplicable surge of warmth the moment he did so. "No thank you," he answered quietly after a moment. "I'll just... come back another time... thank you."

With that he left the house and quickly strode to his car. As it sped along the road and out of sight, Lizzie was left staring out the window in astonishment and wondering what exactly was wrong with what she said.

* * *

"And then he did what?" The inhabitants of the Collins household were enjoying Lizzie's first dinner in Arizona without the stress of Ms. Bourgh. Charlotte was talking to Lizzie on one side of the table while Collins was reading the paper because he didn't get the chance to in the morning.

"He just left, do you think it was something I said?"

"No," Charlotte said, a smile beginning to creep on her face. "Wait you said he was fidgeting?"

"Yes, a lot."

"I think he likes you," Charlotte announced proudly.

Her friend rolled her eyes. "Okay, William Darcy likes me. He hardly spoke to me all last year."

Charlotte shrugged. "Everyone expresses themselves differently. Besides, he detests Will," she added quietly, gesturing to oblivious Collins. "Why would he want to see him?"

Lizzie could only bite her lip in response. _'Impossible...'_


	13. Chapter 13

After the previous nights talk with Charlotte, Lizzie was left nothing short of dazed and confused. She fussed around the house without a purpose, her mind too caught up and she thought herself like a spring, winding itself tighter and tighter until it would burst. So though it was so surprise when she did burst, it was still met with frustration.

Lizzie decided that she would make lunch, and in hindsight she thought it probably wasn't the best idea for her use the stove when she was so obviously preoccupied. Lizzie hardly knew what she was doing, and before she knew it, the eggs had burned and started off the fire alarm. Quickly, she pulled the pan off the stove, but the sudden movement had caused one of the hot eggs to fall on her bare foot. Though the yoke was cooked through and made no mess, the egg scalded her and she howled in pain. She hobbled over to the sink and put water on the hot pan, which let off a lot of steam.

Charlotte came running in coughing with a fire extinguisher and sprayed it wildly over Lizzie and the stove. Lizzie yelled as the foam hit her, which made some go in her mouth. Soon enough the smoke died down and Charlotte stopped coughing, but Lizzie was spitting out the foam in the sink, muttering as she did so.

"What happened Lizzie?" Charlotte asked, astonished.

Lizzie washed out her mouth with some water, spat it out, and replied negatively. "I guess I was distracted."

"You've been distracted all morning," Charlotte huffed, offering her friend a towel to wipe off the foam on her clothes. "Will has called to tell the firefighters not to come running! Will you tell me what's going on?"

"No," Lizzie said shortly. "I'm going for a walk."

"With foam all over your clothes? And is that a burn on your foot?" Charlotte asked, her eyes wide. Lizzie didn't answer, only slipped on a pair of flip flops and left the house.

"It's okay, I don't even notice it," she hollered back from halfway down the driveway.

"But you will later! We need to put some cream on that!" Charlotte yelled back, but Lizzie only waved in response and continued to strut briskly down the street. Charlotte nodded her head in disapproval and shut the door, resigned to wait until her friend came back.

Lizzie hadn't lied when she said her foot didn't hurt at that very moment, but it did start to cause her problems after she had walked for about ten minutes. Every step caused her pain, and she started to hobble. Turning back, she accidentally stepped on a twig with her good flip flopped foot, and her knees buckled. Letting out a cry of frustration and pain, she saw no other option than to sit on a nearby bench and wait for the stabbing pain in her good foot to go down.

Five minutes later and the stabbing ache in her foot had not quelled, she began to curse herself. 'Why was I stupid enough to leave the house without my cell phone?' she thought angrily. Lost and alone, she leaned her head on the back of the bench, her head still swimming in thought.

She was brought out of her trance by the short toot of a horn, and she was stunned to see that the person in the car was none other than Fitsy.

"What're you doing here Lizzaroo?"

"I burned by foot," she smiled apologetically.

He laughed. "So you decided to take a walk...? Come here, I'll drive you home." He opened up his passenger door and Lizzie limped over to him. "So what happened?"

"I was distracted and dropped an egg on my foot," Lizzie said casually, looking carefully for the first time at her burn.

"Wow, that reminds me of the time I was out with Willy- boy, ya know, Darcy, and he wanted to set a trap for a rat. So he put an egg on a wooden container and set up a trip wire. Well wouldn't you know, the next day he went to check on it and tripped over the trip wire and fell straight into the egg!" he chuckled.

The story stunned Lizzie, who thought that Darcy couldn't possibly have made a mistake since he was born. And to imagine the tall, dark, man tripping and falling over into an egg? It was too much! She busted out laughing, her laughs blending with Fitsy's.

"Will's a good guy. Why, he was telling me a few days ago that he helped one of his friends out of a... difficult situation."

This quelled Lizzie's laughter almost instantly, her heart seizing up in fear for some strange reason. She froze, conflicted as to whether or not she should ask the question that was echoing in her mind. "Who?" she croaked.

"His old childhood friend, Charlie Bingley, the actor! I'm sure you met him, he was there too wasn't he?"

Lizzie paled, certain now of what was coming. Her breathing shallow, she forced herself to continue. "Could you elaborate on... difficult situation?" she asked quietly, picturing the intimidating figure of Darcy in her mind, the person she least expected to ruin her sisters life, yet the more she thought about it, the most likely. It hadn't been Caroline at all, no she didn't have enough influence in Charlie's life to tear him away from Jane. But Darcy had. Lizzie had seen the extreme trust that Charlie had in Darcy, and she felt angry, confused, and a bit betrayed.

"He told me that he broke up a relationship between his friend and some girl."

Her worst suspicions had been confirmed. Fitsy was blissfully unaware that this gossip was hurting Lizzie, keeping his eyes on the road and speaking casually. Lizzie wished she could be so blissfully ignorant, but how could she when she knew that the man she'd just started getting use to was responsible for her favorite sister's broken heart? She turned her head toward the window, determined not to let Fitsy know that anything was wrong. "Why?"

"Something about the family. Sorry sugarplum, don't really remember. Why's it so important?"

The insult to her family hit her hard. Though they were loud and embarrassing, Lizzie never expected that to be the reason for the separation. "I- uh, no reason." She was staring out of the dashboard intently now, and for the first time Fitsy got a good look at her.

"Liz, you're pale! What's up?"

"My foot. Just my foot," she replied, her eyes closed. Her mind was running again, the brief distraction of her burned foot over. Her brain whirled with ways of confronting him, making him apologize, bringing the two crushed teens together again. But she wasn't sure she could do it. She would of course, for her sister, but she couldn't stop thinking of how tall he was, how he looked down on the world. It would be hard to get through to him, she knew. Even if Lizzie couldn't get him to apologize, she would most certainly get more information as to why he would sabotage the relationship. To her, family wasn't a suitable answer.

The rest of the car ride was spent in forced conversation, with Fitsy knowing something was wrong but still being too much of a man to guess. He didn't think it was anything he said, so he just figured it was a female thing and kept to safe topics like the weather, school, and films.

Lizzie was greeted by Charlotte's glare. "So, what happened?" she asked with narrowed eyes as Lizzie leaned on Fitsy and hobbled up the driveway.

"I stepped on a big twig with my other foot, I think it might be bleeding, I haven't looked." Because she had other matters to think about.

"Well, serves you right," Charlotte scolded. "Could you bring her inside, Fitsy, and lay her down on the couch so I can treat her feet?"

By this time Lizzie was up to the front door. "No problem," Fitsy replied good-humoredly and lifted Lizzie up. Lizzie wasn't in the mood to laugh at the sudden action, but she did smirk when she realized it was exerting for him. He placed her down on the couch and stood up, clearly trying to calm his heavy breathing. "D'ya need me for anything else?" he spoke slowly, trying not to pant.

Charlotte was trying to hide a smile as well. "No, I think we're all set."

"Okay then, let me know how she is," he nodded his head to Lizzie and swiveled around, leaving the house.

Charlotte chuckled a little. "Alright, I'm going to get everything to make try and prevent any infections. Who knows, you might have gotten one anyway, running away like that!"

Lizzie waved her hand, not in the mood for criticism. "I'm sorry, I just needed some air."

Charlotte nodded and left the room, returning with a first aid kit. "You are bleeding a little on the bottom of your foot, but the flip flop got the most of it," Charlotte surmised, showing Lizzie the flip flop with a hole in the middle of it. "It's not a deep cut. As for the burn, it looks more second degree." Lizzie hissed when Charlotte put the disinfectant on the cuts, but remained quiet as she bandaged them. Charlotte glanced up when she was done. "You look distracted. What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing." Lizzie wasn't sure yet if she wanted to tell Charlotte what she learned, and thought it best if maybe she waited until she talked to Darcy.

"Yeah, okay. Let me know when you want to tell me." Charlotte left the room with the first aid kit, muttering as she went.

'Darn it," Lizzie thought. 'She knows me much too well.'

***

She had a rough night, with all of the thoughts wandering around in her head it was nearly impossible for her to go to sleep. She had dreams of dark strangers, of a sad china doll she could only guess to be her sister the next morning, and of wailing twins that could only be her sisters. There was also the red queen of hearts briefly, which could only have been Caroline.

So it was no wonder that the next morning she woke up cranky. She was in fact so irritable during breakfast that Caroline left the house in a huff explaining something about food shopping. Lizzie then turned on Collins, so he left for the church in a bumbling mess. With no ride and nowhere to go, Lizzie was left to read a book and watch television and wait for her temper to quell. After about an hour or so of doing nothing, her anger fully dissolved, she was beginning to get bored. There was no one to talk to and midday there wasn't anything interesting on TV. She was about to put in a movie when the doorbell rung.

Figuring it was Collins that forgot to grab his keys before he left she called out, "Be there in a sec!" Well, whoever it was, she was grateful for the interruption and turned off the DVD player and the TV.

Her anger returned in full throttle when she saw who was on the other end of the door, however. There was Darcy, standing there, tall as ever, but looking more vulnerable than she'd ever seen him. 'Serves him right, probably come over to apologize," she thought grumpily. She realized that she'd been staring at him for longer than normal, and stood a bit straighter. He just stood back at her, in a short sleeved plain white shirt, awkwardly stiff. He ran a hand through his hair and his eyes swept over her angry face.

"Er, may I come in?" he asked quietly.

"Will and Charlotte aren't home," she answered coldly. His lips pressed together and his brows furrowed at her tone.

"No, I wanted to talk to you. I was wondering if I could- uh, have lunch with you." He lifted a bag that she hadn't noticed before and saw 'Subway' written in green letters. Her expression softened, and she stared confusedly back at him, her eyes drifting between the plastic bag and his face.

"Of course," she replied after a moment, her emotions conflicting. "Thank you, we can have it in the kitchen." 'Stupid! Tell him you never want to see him again after what he did to Jane,' one side of her argued. 'But he looks so awkward. And he brought me lunch,' the more confused side of her protested. 'Wait for the right moment, then I'll bring it up,' Lizzie decided finally.

They sat down on the wooden chairs around the small breakfast table, and Darcy took two six inch sandwiches out of the bag. "I wasn't sure what you liked, so I just got you chicken. I saw that you liked the chicken my godmother served, so I knew you weren't a vegetarian. I..." he trailed off.

"Chicken is... very nice." She smiled a little at him.

He coughed. "And I only put lettuce on it."

"I like lettuce," she replied back quickly.

"Yes..." he looked at his unwrapped sandwich. Lizzie looked down at hers too and suddenly jumped out of her seat.

"Would you like something to drink?" she asked in a rush after his quizzical look.

"Water, thank you."

"You're sure?" she asked, walking over to a cabinet and pulling out two glasses. "We have milk, orange juice, soda?"

"Water's fine," he answered her distractedly. Lizzie filled up both glasses with water and sat back down. Darcy hadn't started on his sandwich, and neither had she. She wasn't about to be the first to take a bite, though she was hungry, and waited awkwardly for him to start eating.

"So Will, why did you come-?"

"Well I went out this morning, really bored, and wanted to spend some time with someone. But Fitsy was out doing something, and everyone tries to avoid my godmother if possible, and I figured I might as well go and find you. I was getting hungry and wanted to have something out so I went to Subway." He was rambling and he knew it. This was probably the most words Lizzie had ever heard him say, and his rushed quiet tones startled her.

"Well, that's very nice but-"

"I love you," he whispered. She paused, confused as to if he had said what she thought he said.

"I'm sorry... what?"

He took a deep breath. "I know that you're not quite up to the social standards that I'm used to, and we run in very different circles but I can't stop thinking about you." Lizzie said nothing, her cold sandwich forgotten as she stared. "Everything you do fascinates me," he said in a compelling whisper. "I'm not asking for your love now, just give me a chance."

Instead of touching her, his words angered her, the memories of her sister's tears popping up in her head. She thought of George, she thought of Jane, and she thought of Charlie. None of them deserved Darcy, and neither did she. She paused, choosing her words carefully. "Well I'm sorry but- What do you mean, 'social standards'?" her tone was polite but her eyes were dangerous.

Darcy on the other hand was stunned. He had basically spilled his heart out, and he got a question? "I only meant that-"

"Yes, I know what you meant. You think you're so much better than everyone else, don't you?" Lizzie wasn't sure where all this aggression was coming from, but the words spilled out of her mouth with such a strong anger it surprised even herself.

Darcy swallowed, anger finding its way on his face. "You've thought this through, haven't you?" he spit out, clearly hurt but also furious.

"How can I give you a _chance _when you clearly haven't done the same for anyone else?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean my sister and Charlie!" she shouted, letting out weeks of aggression in that one sentence. Darcy's face softened a little but the anger did not leave his eyes.

He was silent for a moment, mulling over his answer. "I thought it was obvious that she wasn't as... eager for a relationship as he was."

"Well, you thought wrong then! She's shy!"

"So is Charlie! I watched her carefully and her actions-"

"She hardly tells me anything, let alone boys! And I'm her favorite!" she cried. She was flaming, who did Darcy think he is to take a relationship into his own hands? Who was he to decide how other people feel? He was quiet for a second, her retaliation sinking in. She seethed inside before beginning again. "And I would imagine that your taking matters into your own hands had nothing to do with money-"

"Of course not, Charlie has enough money for an army to live comfortably! However..."

"What?!" her head snapped up at his pause, her eyes now slits.

"It's just your family-"

"What about them? Charlie didn't have a problem with them!"

"No, it wasn't that! It was the fact that they seemed to enjoy embarrassing themselves at every moment, and not taking anyone else into account!"

Lizzie knew this, she'd even thought it to herself a few times, but she'd never thought that someone would have the indecency to bring it up. And she would never have thought it would have been a factor in ruining Jane's relationship with Charlie. She was stunned, his words sinking in slowly, clouding her mind. Though she felt the same, her one thought was to defend her family. "All of them?"

"No," he replied, his eyebrows furrowed. "You and Jane are the only sensible ones."

This quieted her, and Darcy's evident concern for Charlie's reputation annoyed her. It wasn't any of his business. Yes, her family was embarrassing but none of the other boys seemed to have a problem with it. George didn't have a problem with her family! Then she thought about the terrible things Darcy had done to George. "And what about George?"

The mention of George brought a newfound wave of rage through Darcy and his eyes narrowed even more. "Well, what about him?" he asked, his voice lower than she'd ever heard it, his tone no longer level and even.

"You've ruined his life as well!"

"Oh, is that what he told you? Good for him, he still knows how to lie. You know, some things never change."

"I'll bet he told me more truth than you have!"

"Is that what you think of me? Dishonest?" He emphasized each of his words carefully, his tone still dangerously quiet. "Well, I'm sorry you're so bitter but I can hardly be held accountable for your misfortunes." He was speaking like a duke and he knew it, but the words just spilled from his mouth.

"My misfortunes? I think I'm doing well, thank you. At least I'm not selfish and cruel, the things that stood out to me about you from the very second I looked at you!" she was screaming now, so loud the neighbors probably heard it. She stood up, longing to be taller than him for just once, refusing to feel inferior. "And because of it, you are probably the last person in the world I could ever see myself with!"

His jaw clenched and his eyes relaxed, finally realizing where he was and what just happened. He looked at her face, studying every part of it, and at last determining that she was serious, that these were not just hasty words thrown out just to hurt him. Because of this he stood up. "I'm sorry for disturbing you," he said, not looking at her any more. Without another word, he left. The sound of the door closing echoed throughout the house.

Lizzie didn't move for five minutes, just staring at her uneaten peace offering.


	14. Chapter 14

The remainder of the day, Lizzie was more irritable than before. She refused to tell Charlotte what was wrong, and Collins paid more attention to her than usual. It was lucky that they weren't invited to Ms. Bourgh's house, for Lizzie didn't think she'd be able to even pretend to be civilized for that long and she knew she'd end up saying something she didn't mean. Or did mean.

After the rush of anger came the rush of quiet. By nighttime, she was moping about the house in a silent vigil, only answering questions. She'd divert the topic, however, when Charlotte asked her what was wrong.

The next morning she took it upon herself to act like nothing was wrong, as if her world hadn't just been turned upside down. She forced herself to talk to Charlotte, be civil to Collins, and help out around the house. Even though she now had a lot more to think of, she'd be going back home in two days and wanted to spend as much time with Charlotte as she could.

Lizzie was more than grateful when Charlotte took it upon herself to take them somewhere. So they went to the tennis court that Ms. Bourgh owned and played for a while. Lizzie was, under normal circumstances, very good at tennis but the current preoccupation of her thoughts caused her to lose many points that she may have won. Charlotte knew Lizzie well enough to just keep quiet on the way back and so the car ride was spent with the radio on and the top down.

"I have a letter for you, well more like a note," Collins announced after they went back in the house. Lizzie arched a suspicious brow, but took the letter in his hand and went to the kitchen to get some water. "Have you noticed anything strange about our guest lately, dearie?"

"Yes," Charlotte answered frankly.

Collins gazed back expectantly. "Well? What are we going to do about it?"

Charlotte shrugged. "Nothing. Lizzie shuts down when pressured, so we won't pressure her. She'll tell me when she's ready. She usually does." Collins merely shrugged and returned to writing his sermon.

Meanwhile, in her bedroom, Lizzie tore open the tape on the folded piece of paper. It wasn't in an envelope, and the only indication that it was for her was the small 'for L' written hastily at the top. Though she had her suspicions, it was still a bit of a shock when she realized that the neat, small handwriting was in fact Darcy's. She was intrigued, but still a bit suspicious. So with a cautious heart, she settled down on her bed to read the letter.

Elizabeth,

I can understand your anger over our talk yesterday, and I've had some time to think about all the things you said and would like to clarify a few things. Before I do though, I just wanted to say that I will be leaving this afternoon for California to do a project with Charlie so you can go about as you want without the fear of running into me.

As for my friend and your sister, all the reasons I gave to you for my intrusion on their relationship were seemed valid for me. That is, I felt that she didn't feel as strongly for my friend as he did for her. This was wrong of me to assume. I shouldn't have brought the rest of your family into this, and for that I apologize. The other, which I did not say, was that I didn't want your sister dragged into the same world that Charlie and I live in. It's a harsh world, with everyone judging your every move and tracking your every word. I didn't want to corrupt such a person as your sister in the same way I have, I've become cynical with the world. She would merely be Charlie's plaything, his brief affair, the way the rest of them have. I could tell that he felt strongly for your sister, but the pressure of show business might have destroyed that bond.

As for George Wickham, I am resentful of his lies. You can choose whichever story you believe, but I'll give you mine. Yes, he was my first friend. But he was also a child star. Children stars often turn rotten as they get older, and George was no different. As a middle schooler he was already trying different kinds of drugs and messing with his health. He paid millions of dollars to keep his name out of the newspapers, and it was soon after that he came to me. I refused to fuel his... lifestyle so he found a more creative alternative. Now a sophomore in high school, he went after my sister. My sister was in middle school at the time, and as most girls that age are, she was looking for attention. My parents had made the mistake of also putting her into Hollywood, so she had a fair amount of money for herself. My parents also didn't know of George's double life, so when he came to visit my sister with gifts, my parents were more than happy to do whatever he wanted. Recently after having the assurances of my parents, he decided that he needed more money from them so he took them out to dinner. Before they got to the restaurant, though, my father discovered that George was driving under the influence and tried to get him to pull over. He failed, and they crashed into a tree. George called the police, but escaped and hid in the nearby woods. He missed prison and the newspapers deemed my parent's deaths as a hit and run.

As you can imagine, I cut off all ties with him and he went bankrupt and hid in the shadows, with my parent's death on his hands and my heartbroken sister.

I can't expose him after so long, especially since he has long given up his drug and alcohol use to join the army... I still wouldn't trust him with taking out the trash.

I hope you can see from my side now and forgive me.

William.

Lizzie lay her head back against the headboard and released a long breath. The story that Darcy had just told her was far too fantastic to be true, yet it did confirm the negative vibes she had felt from George. As for her sister and Bingley, though it wasn't his place she found it easier to see why he intervened.

Resolved, she promised herself never to look Wickham in the eye again.

But how did she feel about Darcy?

***

Jane met her at the airport when she arrived at Logan in Boston three days later. She looked healthier than she had when she last saw her, but the sadness had not quite left her eyes. Lizzie was extremely happy to see her, and they spent the entire car ride back talking about their trips. Lizzie told her everything, except of course the last few days and the confusing turn of events. Lizzie decided that she would tell her sister about Wickham, but not until they both got home and she got settled in again.

Home was the same as usual, for the twins were gossiping about soldiers and their upcoming sophomore year. Lizzie was thoroughly filled in on the life of George Wickham and his apparent breakup with his girlfriend and Lizzie found herself lacking in emotion. But the news that did stun her was that her sisters were allowed to go to and see George before he went back to Washington.

"It won't be for too long," her mother assured her. "They just want to see him with their aunt, then they'll come home." Mrs. Bennet leaned closer to Lizzie. "A friend of your father's in Washington was even thinking of keeping Lydia there with him and his wife, just to visit him! You know, a few days ago he stopped by and it looked like they were getting along really well!" She leaned back only to be greeted by the horrified look on Lizzie's face. "Well, you can be happy for your sister! You just got back from Arizona, she needs to go places too!"

"But... why? Can't you see he's dangerous?"

Mrs. Bennet waved her hand. "Posh. He's a gentleman."

"You think so... he's a lot older than she is!"

"Only three years. There's a two year difference between me and your father."

Lizzie sighed. "But you met in college, that's different!"

So by the end of the night, Lizzie had lost the argument with her father to keep Lydia home, Kitty found out about Lydia's betrayal and was wailing about the house, and Lizzie found no time through the chaos to tell Jane about Wickham.


	15. Chapter 15

"But Lizzie, do you think George could ever do such a thing?" Jane asked, her brow knitted in concern. They were on the bed the morning after her return and Lizzie decided to share what she'd learned about George with her sister before the events of the day caught up with them.

Lizzie shrugged. "I think so."

Jane lips thinned. "Do you think we should tell anyone?"

Lizzie paused for a moment. "I've thought about it, but I don't think so. As... insistent as the twins are, I don't think he'll bother us any more."

"But he came to visit not too long ago! What if he comes back?" Jane's question brought a small smile to her sister's lips.

"We just won't answer."

Jane shook her head. "You're sneaky, let's go down for breakfast." Lizzie grinned wider and they climbed off the bed and began to walk down the stairs. "You know mom's going to ask about Collins, right?" Jane whispered.

"Yeah, I'm not worried. He's just as creepy as ever, just in love."

Jane gasped. "So he is...?"

In response Lizzie shuddered. "Yeah, it's really weird. Charlotte likes him too, but he's really... attached." Jane made a face.

"Well, as long as they're happy."

Lizzie laughed. "Okay, Jane."

"What're you two laughing at so early in the morning?" Mrs. Bennet asked grumpily as she dropped a plate of pancakes on the table, her hair in rollers.

"It's ten in the morning, mom."

"You didn't have to listen to Lydia complain all night about how she doesn't go anywhere," their mother replied with a huff and slammed down the syrup.

"So is she going?" Lizzie asked worriedly. Now that she knew the truth about George she didn't want her family anywhere near him, and of all people it was Lydia who was bound to cause some sort of trouble.

"Of course. Even the strongest political couldn't hold up against her complaining. Now I'm going to get ready to take Kitty to the beach to hang out with her friends, so put the dishes into the dishwasher when you're done." She was about to leave before she turned around, tightening the robe around her. "And how is dear Will?"

"Fine." Lizzie refused to talk any more on the subject, so she went for the short teenage approach. Her mother realized this and went on her way, complaining about ungrateful children. When she left the room, Lizzie laughed quietly and poured syrup on her plate.

They ate in silence for a moment. "I have to leave in a week," Jane said quietly. A piece of pancake on her fork stopped midway to her mouth as Lizzie stared. She hadn't thought of Jane going to college in so long, it was almost as though she was never going to leave. School would be so different without her two best friends and Jane's quiet reminder set off an alarm in her head that she would be alone. Going through the hardest year of her school career alone.

She put the fork back on her plate and ran her hand through her hair. "I'm going to miss you."

Jane smiled sadly at her. "I'll be back before you know it."

The rest of the summer went as fast as lightning, Lydia was gone and back, Jane left, and school started. Lizzie did what she normally did, theatre, volunteer work, trying to cope with all of her homework, and trying her best to survive without the two special people in her life. It was hard to complain about much of anything, being so busy all the time, and before she knew it Christmas came and went. George invited Lydia to come over again the next summer and that was her youngest sister's fascination for a very long time. As her IB exams came closer and closer it was hard to focus on anything else other than passing her tests. She hung out with other people, but no matter how many times she went to the mall with her other friends, no one could make up for Charlotte.

It seemed long as she was in the midst of it, but before she knew it, it was time for summer to come again. She had been accepted to an art university in New York, and she'd finally decided to become a playwright. Graduation was a tearful ceremony for her as well as her parents, and when she reached for her IB diploma she felt as if a part of her was missing. Charlotte should have been there next to her, getting her diploma. As for this summer, she fully planned to have some fun before she went to college, and part of this fun was going to consist of another trip to Arizona.

Unfortunately, this was not in her parent's itinerary. "Your aunt and uncle, you know, the ones that live in California, want you to come and visit them!"

Lizzie was stunned, her Californian relatives never really talked to them, and so it was a bit of a surprise when they invited her and no one else.

"They thought that since you would be living there anyway in a few years, they might as well introduce you to it! Lydia will be in Washington again for a few weeks, and you'll be in California. It's all been settled," Mrs. Bennet sighed. "I thought you'd be happy."

"I am, I just was hoping I'd be able to see Charlotte again."

Her mother hugged her. "You will, just not this summer."

Her relatives picked her up at the airport and Lizzie prepared herself for one last adventure before she went to school again.

She was more right than she knew.


	16. Chapter 16

"So, what would you like to do today, Lizzie?" her aunt asked over breakfast the next morning. Once she got off the plane there wasn't much day left to go to the city, or even do much of anything, so they decided to take their niece on a tour of the town and sit at home to play cards. Lizzie found that California was very different from any other place she had been to before, there were plants everywhere and everything was very well kept. Though it was extremely hot, Lizzie found it bearable. Though she loved Cape Cod, she found California an easy place to live in. At least, California suburbia was.

"I'd ask if you wanted to go to the city today, but I've already got something planned," her uncle chuckled over the paper. Lizzie's aunts furrowed her brows, and Lizzie took that to assume she hadn't been told the plans.

"What?" she answered playfully, cutting up her eggs.

"Well, your mother talked with me... a lot... before you came and she told us you have a few friends up this way, so I thought we'd drop them a visit today!" Uncle Jerry Gardiner glanced up at Elizabeth, expecting to see a mildly confused, pleased look on her face, but was met instead by a confused, nervous look.

Lizzie didn't trust her mother one bit. There were only two people that Mrs. Bennet could have possibly ratted Lizzie out on, Charlie or Will. Neither of them seemed overly appealing at the moment, but she'd take on Charlie gladly, especially after her awkward confrontation with Will last summer. She'd barely heard anything of him since, nor of Charlie, and she planned to keep it that way. The surname Bingley had become taboo in the Bennet household for Jane's sake, and Lizzie hardly wanted to be the one to open up the door for more heartbreak for her sister. In school his name had come up often, but only because the teens of Cape Cod had nothing better to do but to gossip about 'their' celebrities.

"It was hard enough to get through to the agent, but the minute I did and said your name, she agreed to let us have a tour of the house!"

The egg now felt like cardboard in her mouth and she found it difficult to swallow. "Whose house?" she asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.

"You'll see when we get there," he answered happily and stood up with his plate. "I'm going to get dressed. Meet you all in the car in forty- five minutes! That should be enough time to get dressed, right ladies?"

"Should be fine," Aunt Betty answered in awe. When her husband left the room, she turned to her niece. "Do you think it's someone famous?"

"There isn't a doubt in my mind," Lizzie answered glumly.

***

The mansion was in a community of other mansions, but it dwarfed the others just by sheer presence. The gates opened for their small Ford and they were greeted by large trees in full bloom, the grounds kept neat and well groomed. In fact, several gardeners were out with large shears clipping the plants around the perimeter and Lizzie found herself nearly pressing her nose against the glass, entranced with the sheer beauty of nature.

Before she'd even seen the house, she knew whose home it was. Charlie wasn't capable of such elegance, even with the help of his witch of a sister. No, it had to come from an introvert, and the only one she knew was William. Lizzie's heart caught in her chest when her eyes finally fell on the house. There were plants framing the giant white modern home, but not overwhelming it.

There were four floors, all with open balconies and a large staircase leading up to the front door. The palm trees all had lights in them for later at night, and there were columns spread out periodically. It was much more beautiful than Charlie's temporary home back home, it was eloquent and, well... perfect. She couldn't see enough. The replicants of famous Greek statues on platforms on the front lawn entranced her, as did the sloping grace of the lawn.

Only too soon, they parked in the much- too- large- for- anyone garage and made their way up the giant staircase.

"Beautiful place, but I'd like to see him climb these stairs when he's eighty," Lizzie's uncle grouched jokingly as he huffed. He was on the heavier side, but he managed to make it up the stairs with little trouble. A short, stout woman met them on the top and she extended her hand to each of them, smiling at Lizzie.

"You must be the Gardiners, and this is Elizabeth?"

Lizzie smiled somewhat nervously. "Lizzie. It's very nice to meet you."

"You went to school with Will, if I recall from your Uncle's call?" It startled Lizzie a little that the woman called Will by his first name, not Mr. Darcy. Lizzie nodded and the woman gestured for them to come inside. The parlor was absolutely beautiful, and not too lavishly decorated. "Yes, Will is a very nice young man. He was torn apart when his parents died, and he is taking wonderful care of his sister now that he's turned eighteen and is now a legal adult. Of course, they were under their uncle's influence after their parents had died, but Will decided it was about time he took control. His uncle is very... unstable. It wasn't a very good situation for Georgiana."

Lizzie was listening intently to the woman's words, trying hard to focus on the splendor of each of the rooms but her mind was whirring with the new information she was being given. Lizzie was in awe of the story that the woman wove, with Darcy coming out as the hero. It dawned on her that the Will she knew might not be the real one. There might be a kinder, protective man underneath that arrogant exterior.

"He's taken good care of us, all of us workers were afraid we'd lose our jobs when Mr. and Mrs. Darcy died but Will stepped up and took over. He made sure that we knew him, and insisted we call him by his first name. He gave us all raises and vacations... such a nice man. But of course, you saw that, going to school with him and all!" She winked at Lizzie as they walked into the kitchen. "It's really upsetting that you won't be able to see him today, he's at a meeting in Italy. He should be home tomorrow, though we didn't know that when Mr. Gardiner called us."

"That's fine," Lizzie replied weakly, the new information too much for her. They'd already gone through the parlor, the dining hall, one of the living rooms, and the kitchen. Each seemed more fantastic than the last, but all were designed with the same diligent care and precision. Lizzie wasn't sure how she would act if she had seen Will.

When the reached the library, Lizzie couldn't breathe. There were shelves and shelves of books with gold lettering marking the different genres. She ran her fingers across the spines of the classics, feeling _Huckleberry Finn, Frankenstein, A Midsummer's Night's Dream _and _Robin Hood._ Fiction was the largest section, and she smiled when she saw the obvious signs of repeated use on _Harry Potter _and _Lord of the Rings. _Titles and titles swam across her eyes, most of them familiar to her. The words that came out of their tour guide's mouth were irrelevant, the only thing that mattered were the words that William treasured so much. The words of the stories that Lizzie treasured so much. She closed her eyes and remembered a time when she would just read and read, the lands she visited and the adventures she'd had alongside the characters coming back to her like a memory.

"Honey, are you ready to see the third floor?"

"Yes," Lizzie replied softly, her eyes still closed. They remained so for only another moment, and then turned her back on the beautiful library, her heart aching for the leather chair in front of the fire in the corner of the room where she imagined herself with a good book and good company.

The ornate doors of her fantasyland closed louder than they should have, the sound reverberated in her chest.

The third floor held even more treasures for her, there was an art room, a study, several guest bedrooms, and many bathrooms. She spent more time looking at each of the pieces of his collection than the rest, and they stood at the door.

"Would you like to stay here for a bit more?"

"What?" Lizzie was startled out of the trance she was given by the exquisite painting. "Oh yes, I'd like that."

Their guide smiled. "Feel free to stay here while I take your uncle and aunt to the gardens. Just ask any of the help and they'll be happy to take you there."

"Yes, thank you," she murmured, already enraptured by another sculpture. There wasn't any modern art, which she never understood, but copies of paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance era, and the Greek and the Roman era. She dared to run a finger along the smooth jawline of a centaur just as a beautiful tune reached her ears. At first she wondered if it came from her own head, but after she paused she realized it had in fact come from some part of the house. Deciding to investigate, she climbed the curving staircase to the fourth floor. The door that the piano music was coming from was left ajar, and Lizzie peeked through it. First, her eyes came on a flute, then a trumpet, and then finally the giant piano forte, with a blonde haired teenager playing on it. A full length mirror ran along the side of the wall like a ballet studio, but the piano's top covered the girl's face.

Lizzie realized after a brief moment who the teen was, but before she could flee, the girl stopped abruptly and ran into the arms of a brunette stranger.

"Will!" Georgiana cried as he twirled her around, laughing as Lizzie had never heard him before.

In her haste to flee, Lizzie ran into a chair in the hallway and it fell with a bang. She grimaced, and decided to stay and face the consequences rather than hit and run, causing her to look like a fool.

Two interested faces came into view when they heard the bang, and were greeted by Lizzie's backside picking up the chair. "Oh! Do you need any help?" Georgiana cried and ran to Lizzie's side, but her brother simply remained at the door, stock still and staring. He turned pale but slowly made his way over to Lizzie.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his deep baritone making Lizzie pause as she turned to face him.

"Yes I- I thought you weren't home today?" she blurted out, stuttering at the intense look in his eyes. She'd hoped more than once that he'd just forgotten about her, that he'd moved on. But the deeply rooted look of longing in his eyes told her that this was not the case.

"I came back early to surprise my sister. Elizabeth, this is Georgiana," he gestured to the blonde who was clutching the chair and smiling knowingly. Lizzie swallowed at Will's sister's raised eyebrow.

"Nice to meet you, Georgiana," Lizzie said slowly, trying her best to give a little smile.

"Yes, Lizzie, isn't it? You can call me George. Everyone else does! It's so nice to finally meet the girl my brother has told me so much about," she smirked and put the chair back at its place on the wall.

"Not that much," Darcy corrected quickly, his eyes never straying from Lizzie's face.

Color went to her cheeks as she felt his eyes on her. "I'm here with my aunt and uncle... they're in the gardens."

"I can... help you find them if you want," he offered, looking almost as vulnerable as the last time they'd had a real conversation.

"Yes, I'll go with you," George offered with a side smile, her blue eyes twinkling.

'She's a smart girl, she must have known I'd refuse if she wouldn't come along,' Lizzie mused to herself. 'She's very pretty, though the opposite of Will... he's got all these dark features while she's so... bright.' "Sure, thank you," she responded evenly as they descended the stairs.

"How was senior year?" George asked Lizzie.

"It was as good as it could be, I guess, with it being the IB and all," she shrugged and turned to Will. "How was freshman year?"

He looked startled to see that she was actually talking to him. "I didn't go to college this year. I took a break to... wrap a few things up and take a break. I'll be starting this fall at New York University."

Lizzie almost stopped walking. 'NYU? That's where I'll be going to school!' she thought in a panic but tried to maintain a cool exterior. "Oh that's... a smart decision."

"I thought so, plus I got to spend more time with my sister," Will smiled at said sister, and George smiled back. She could feel the awkward in the air and knew she had to put the two together. Now that they were all on their way to the gardens, if George slipped away there would be no way for Lizzie to escape without seeming impolite. So, as soon as she could, Georgiana feigned forgetfulness and rushed back up the stairs to pretend to retrieve something.

So Will and Lizzie continued on their own to the gardens in an awkward silence, each one straining for the other to talk. Lizzie contented herself with admiring the splendor of the outdoors, with all of the flowers and bird baths. There were several pools over on the side, and Lizzie wondered if it was Georgiana's influence that they were there. 'If Will had a pool at all it would be a simple one. Not several ovals like this one is, it must have been for Georgiana,' she thought.

They reached the tour guide, who Darcy introduced as Melissa Reynolds, and Lizzie introduced him to her aunt and uncle. They spoke pleasantly for some time, and Lizzie could tell her family was entranced by his cool headedness and polite talk, quite unlike her first encounter with him.

"I was wondering, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, if you had any plans for tomorrow night," he asked charmingly. "I'm having my friend Charlie come over, and we were planning to use the grill and pool. I'm hoping that you and Elizabeth could come."

Lizzie's uncle let out a jovial laugh. "We were only planning to go to the city, and that was in the morning! Sure, we'd love to come over!"

Darcy smiled and Lizzie's heart nearly stopped. "Wonderful." He then reached into his pocket and pulled out an iPhone. He looked at the screen and frowned. "If you'll excuse me, I really must take this." He nodded to the group and walked away, chatting urgently into his phone.

"He's such a nice man, and so handsome too... don't you think Miss Bennet?"

Lizzie had a distracted look on her face as she turned back to Mrs. Reynolds. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

***

"Have you noticed something... strange about Lizzie lately? She seems... distracted," Mr. Gardiner smirked to his wife in a way that suggested he knew exactly what was wrong with his niece. It was late at night and the Gardiners were in bed watching the Food Network.

"I think our beautiful niece," his wife answered false tragically. "Is in love with dear William Darcy. And he with her."

"Oh how dreadful," Mr. Gardiner laughed.

Mrs. Gardiner shook her head jokingly. "I fear that tomorrow may be a very interesting day."

***

The city was everything Lizzie had ever expected it to be, with San Francisco's steep hills and beaches. The buildings were beautiful, but they only had time for a few hours' worth of exploration because they needed to be back home in time to get back to Darcy's home for the party. The Gardiner's promised Lizzie a day at Hollywood and another day at San Francisco, and with that they were on the road again to get ready.

Lizzie was never one to spend too much time in the bathroom getting ready, but that day she always found one stray hair that needed to be pinned down, one eyelash without mascara, one eyebrow hair unplucked. What usually took her twenty minutes at most took her an hour, and after she'd thrown on a bikini (that she all of a sudden felt self conscious in) and a pullover, they were back on their way to the Darcy estate.

The iron gate opening seemed more ominous than the other day, and Lizzie felt much more exposed in her swim wear. Mrs. Reynolds was there, as happy as ever, to escort them to the pool area.

"Oh who invited her?" Caroline Bingley's obnoxious voice was the first thing Lizzie heard as she walked into the pool area. She frowned, but Caroline wasn't her main problem any more. Her main problem was the lanky figure doing laps in the pool that hadn't realized she was there yet. She didn't have to wait long, because Charlie took up a foam football and threw it at his swimming friends' head.

"What did you do that for?" Will asked exasperatedly, throwing the wet football back at Charlie.

Charlie grinned and walked over to hug Lizzie. "Look who's here, Willy- boy!" Charlie extended his hand to her aunt and uncle just as Georgiana came over to hug Lizzie and Will pulled himself out of the pool. Lizzie's eyes quickly grazed Will's shirtless form, but she was embarrassed and turned to Charlie. Caroline pouted at being excluded and went back to her sun tanning.

"I'm so glad you could come," Will said happily in his deep voice as he shook hands with Mr. Gardiner. He had a shirt on now and a towel draped on his shoulders.

"Come on Lizzie, come in the pool with me!" Georgiana called just as she did a cannonball into the water.

Lizzie laughed, her anxiety dripping away slowly but surely. Without thinking she pulled the pullover off her and threw it onto a nearby lounge chair and walked over to the diving board, oblivious to Darcy's eyes on her.

"Should I just jump in?" Lizzie called teasingly to Georgiana.

"Yes!" George giggled happily and splashed a bit of water at her.

"No, I don't think I will..." Lizzie turned to get off the diving board, but was hit in the back by something wet and foamy. She turned dramatically to the giggling girl in the deep end. "Did you just throw a foam ball at me?" she narrowed her eyes at her newfound friend.

"Mmhm," she replied proudly. Darcy saw all of this and his heart nearly broke, watching his sister and Lizzie interacting so positively with one another. 'What am I doing wrong?' he asked himself briefly, then shook it off.

"Oh, you're going to pay for that..." Lizzie trailed off as her body hit the water. Once she resurfaced, she blindly pushed water in the direction of Georgiana, who shrieked and sprayed water back.

"Water fight!" Charlie called delightfully. He took off his shirt and jumped in, taking Georgiana's side in the battle.

"Come on in, Will! This is so much fun!" Georgiana called.

Will smiled sadly and his eyes met with Lizzie's. Lizzie smiled nervously, then said, "Yes, come in! I could use some help." She cracked a quarter smile but that's all he needed to hear. He took off his shirt and towel and began to join in on the battle, and soon enough he was laughing like a child again.

No one even noticed Caroline's muttering about how they ruined her favorite magazine when she went inside.

***

"Why do you even like her?" Caroline asked menacingly to Will later after Elizabeth had left with her family. Everyone else had gone up to shower and change, but Bingley's sister had come to intercept Darcy as he cleaned off the grill. "She's not even that pretty." She smiled arrogantly. "I remember you thought she was pretty once, but that was such a long time ago."

He was silent for a moment, twisting the cap on the pickle jar. "You're right," he answered finally. "A long time ago I thought she was pretty, now I think she's the most beautiful girl I've ever met in my entire life." He could have smiled at Caroline's shocked look. He gathered all the condiments that needed to be refrigerated on a tray and began to walk up the stairs. "And that includes you," he finished with relish. "Make sure you turn off the lights when you're done out here. Money don't grow on trees you now."

If looks could kill, half of California would be dead at Caroline Bingley's behalf.


	17. Chapter 17

They woke up early the next morning to get an early start on their drive to Hollywood. Lizzie was hyper, especially after the events of the previous night and the morning went by in a pleasant blur. So pleasant, in fact, that she'd forgotten her cell phone. It didn't seem to matter, though, as the sights and sounds of Hollywood were so fantastic. Lizzie walked along the Walk of Fame, camera hung around her neck. She'd taken pictures of the stars of Julie Andrews, Lucille Ball, Ingrid Bergman, Charlie Chapman, Judy Garland, and many more. Grauman's Chinese Theatre was more beautiful in real life than it was on the pictures and as was the softly swaying palm trees. Lizzie found herself being swept into the magic of the city, and the more time she spent there, the more she wanted to stay.

'No wonder everyone wants to get into show business,' she thought, impressed.

Far sooner than she'd have liked, they were back on the road to her aunt's and uncle's house.

"Why don't you check your phone to see if anyone called you today, you haven't heard from your mother in a while," her aunt suggested calmly. "I think your uncle and I will take a walk. Is that okay?"

Lizzie smiled reassuringly. "Enjoy yourselves. I'll make sure the house doesn't burn down while you're away! Take your time, there's really no rush."

"Thank you dear," Mrs. Gardiner replied in a sing song voice as she left out the door with her husband.

Lizzie turned on her phone and discovered that she had been left two new messages. Curious, she punched in her voicemail password and was startled to hear the tearful voice of Jane.

_"Lydia... she's gone and run away with George! Apparently, they snuck off one day and... just dissapeared! Mother's happy, as you can imagine, she thinks George is God's gift to man, but we know the truth! What are we going to do? She hasn't even graduated yet! She's ruining her future! Of course, the only thing anyone can think of is how she's ruining our reputation, but as long as she's safe and George doesn't harm her it doesn't matter! Father is flying down to DC as we-" _the call ended there and Lizzie stood there for a moment in shock, the facts sinking in. Lydia had gone and run away with George, perhaps even married him. 'But she's not even old enou-' she thought incredulously, but then stopped herself. 'She turned eighteen two weeks ago!' she thought tragically. 'She's a legal adult. Though adult is hardly the word I would use to describe her!'

She pressed the save message button and listened to the other. _"Sorry, I ran out of time. Father is flying down to DC to find her. Apparently George had a furlough that day and they just... took off! It's not even legal to- anyway, he's going down to look for some clues. Please call me back as soon as you get this message and book the next flight back home. Mother's ill and the house is in a frenzy. I love you."_

Lizzie paled. It was far worse than she would have thought. The worse she thought George could do was date and dump her, but marry her? That was ridiculous and completely out of character! Besides, the Bennets had nothing to offer George Wickham, so what use would Lydia be to him? They couldn't have fallen in love, Lydia was far too distracting!

'I've got to find my aunt and uncle before I call Jane back,' she thought in a rush. She dialed the number to her aunt's cell, but it went straight to voice message. She tried her uncle's phone too, but heard it ring downstairs. In frustration, she flung the phone onto the bed across the room and went down the stairs, hopping two at a time. In a rush she threw on some boat shoes and ran down the driveway, looking to see if she could see them down the way that they went.

Angry and stressed, she turned around to see a black sports car trying to make a right into the driveway. She moved out of the way and the car stopped and Will jumped out.

"You look upset, what's wrong?" He rushed over to her and grabbed her hands.

"Lydia's run away with George!" Lizzie's lower lip trembled and her hands were shaking within his grasp. "I need to find my aunt and uncle, did you see them?"

"No," he looked just as distressed and worried as she did. "But they'll be back soon, let's go inside and think about this before we run around and do something rash."

He put an arm around her shoulder and steered her inside. By the time they reached the kitchen, Lizzie felt numb.

"Where do they keep the tea? I always drink tea when something stresses me out," he asked, taking charge of the situation.

"The second cabinet on the right."

He pulled out two packets and found two mugs. Filling them with water, he put a packet in each and put one in the microwave for two minutes.

"When did you find this out?"

Lizzie rubbed her forehead. "Jane left me a message this morning, but I didn't get it until just now."

He nodded and took the tea out of the microwave. Before he gave her the cup, threw the second mug in for two minutes. He slid the cup of tea in front of her and found himself a seat on the other side of the island. The options ran through his head, until he sighed. He got up to get his tea from the microwave and sat back down, now angry. "This is all my fault."

"No, it's mine. I should have told my family what you told me about him before it was too late," Lizzie corrected sadly, taking a small sip of the hot tea.

The door opened to a laughing Mr and Mrs Gardiner, but when they saw the scene splayed out in front of them, their merriment ended. "What's wrong?" Mr Gardiner asked urgently, his eyes wandering from Darcy to Lizzie.

"I need to book a flight home for tomorrow. Lydia's run away with a soldier."

Mrs Gardiner gasped. "Yes, dear, right away! I'll see what I can do."

"No, let me." Darcy stood up, his tall figure intimidating. "It'll be impossible for you to book a flight so last minute, and it'll cost a fortune. I'll have my private jet fly you home."

Lizzie was so grateful she felt tears beginning to form in her eyes. Quickly blinking them away she smiled gratefully. "Thank you Will!"

"It's the least I can do," he replied, not quite looking at her face. He turned to leave, but her uncle stopped him.

"What were you doing here, if you don't mind me asking?"

Darcy paused. "I came over to ask you all to dinner again. I see now that it will be an issue. It was nice seeing you all. I'll have my chauffeur pick you up at seven o'clock. Goodbye, Lizzie. I wish I could have done more."

With that he left the house and strutted to his car.

But before he did that, Mrs. Gardiner didn't fail to notice the look that they shared, and despite their unfortunate circumstances, she smiled inwardly.

***

"I'm sure he'll have her back soon, I'm sure George doesn't want a scandal as much as we do," Jane said worriedly, her fingers tapping nervously on the wheel.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Lizzie muttered. She looked as if she had just rolled out of bed, which was technically true. The private jet was nice, but she could hardly enjoy herself and the ice cream machine since she was so scared.

"Mom swore all day yesterday, calling the Forsters nearsighted and clumsy. There was no way anyone could have known what was going to happen! But last night was crazy. Lydia actually called us, and she wouldn't allow mom to put a word in, not allowing her to ask even where she is! She ended the call with, 'I can't wait to come home as Lydia Wickham.' Honestly, that girl is so foolish."

When they got home, they discovered matters got worse. Apparently their father had called, saying that none of his connections or any of the Forsters' had worked, and Lydia remained as lost as before.

"What are we going to do?" Mrs. Bennet wailed in her bed, a fan blowing on her.

Lizzie frowned. "The only thing we can do is wait."

***

_"Lizzie is that you? It's your father." _Mr. Bennet's voice sounded worried coming out of the phone.

"Yes, it's me, dad. Is there any more news?"

_"Yes," _he sighed. _"They've eloped. My eighteen year old daughter eloped with a complete stranger. Forster found her, and I can't even begin to imagine how much he paid Wickham to convince him to come back with her. I saw her this morning. She talked my head off about how happy she is, how handsome George is, as if I gave a damn. She can't comprehend the trouble we went through, and how much money we spent! Hotels are a lot nowadays." _He sighed again, sounding much older than he was.

"She's a child, a stupid, naive child."

_"I'm not sure how naive," _he muttered darkly. _"I seemed to have gotten the play by play of their wedding night, but I tried my best to think of the scores of the Red Soxs this year, or anything but. I could have punched him in the face. In fact, I should have."_

"Yes, you should've," Lizzie replied, disgusted at her youngest sister.

_"I'd imagine your mother wants to see her, but hell knows I'm not paying for her plane ticket. I told her she would be finishing school, there's nothing I can do about the marriage right now. She yelled at me for a half hour of what that meant for her. 'I'd be away from my Wickham! What monster separates a wife from her man?' and so on..."_

"She needs to learn how to be responsible." Lizzie agreed with her father immensely. If Lydia wanted to see her mother, she'd have to pay her own way. "She obviously thinks she's an adult anyhow," Lizzie told her father sarcastically.

He sighed again. _"Please give me to your mother, I have a feeling that when I'm through with her she'll have me paying for their children's college fund in another twenty years."_

Lizzie shook her head. "Stay strong, dad. I'm going to find Mother... here she is."

Sure enough, about five minutes into the conversation, they heard a loud, "WHAT?!" and that proceeded with a lot of yelling and swearing.

"It sounds like Lydia will be coming home on dad's charity," Lizzie commented to Jane sadly.

"Oh so they did find her!" Jane smiled broadly.

Lizzie scoffed darkly. "Yes, but they're married."

Jane's face fell.


	18. Chapter 18

Lizzie slept restlessly for the next few weeks, her mind churning. She was now fully convinced that she'd made a mistake in not returning Darcy's affections and now Lydia had fully lost her the chance she might have had after visiting him in California. They'd had such a nice time...

Lydia was coming home soon with Mr. Bennet and George, and Lizzie wondered what she'd do. Would she yell at George? In her mind she would, though she doubted she could in real life though she'd no trouble yelling at Darcy before.

The few times she spoke with her father before their flight, he sounded tired and mad. She'd never heard him so angry before, and it seemed that he'd finally realized that structure was best for foolish little girls. Lizzie almost felt bad for Kitty, who'd be getting the brunt of the scolding when he got back. There'd be no more dating for her until college, not like there was much before.

The day of their return was extremely difficult for most of the family. Kitty walked around like a wounded puppy, Jane was extremely disappointed in Lydia but could hardly say anything in front of her father, Lizzie was downright furious, and Mr. Bennet was tired of all the drama. Mary tried to stay out of it for as long as she could, escaping to her bedroom to make music on her laptop. Lizzie thought that her mother was the worst of it all, she was beaming, singing, and just too happy to be normal. No matter how many times Jane and Lizzie tried to explain to her that having a married daughter not out of high school yet was unnatural, she was just ecstatic.

Lydia was oblivious to the pain she inflicted on most of the family. She strutted about the house acting like the Queen of Sheba, and whenever she could she made a point of kissing her new husband. Lydia wasn't stupid enough to do it in front of her father, but showed affection to her single sisters often. "Isn't he just perfect? It's such a nice feeling to have someone, don't you think? Oh wait..." then she'd giggle and Kitty would run away in tears.

George was actually silent for once, having taken one look at the disapproving faces of Lizzie and Jane. He decided that they'd found him out and stayed clear of them for as long as he could.

It was impossible to hide from everyone during dinner, and Lydia boasted about her elopement to anyone that would listen. At some point or another, someone would tell her to shut up, but she kept on blabbering.

"And then Will told me that..."

Lizzie, who'd been picking at her dinner for the past half hour, not hungry enough to even consider eating, seemed to wake up after hearing these words. "Which Will?" she asked, somewhat panicked.

"Will Darcy of course," Lydia rolled her eyes, and on purpose slowly dragged her left hand across her face in what she thought was a thoughtful manner, but was intentionally trying to show off the ring. She then giggled. "Oh, I'd forgotten that I wasn't supposed to tell you! Oh well."

Lizzie was incredulous. If Will had known where she was, why hadn't he told her? "Why was he there?" she asked in a rushed voice.

"He found us a day after we married! He paid for everything, he must have known Georgie had no money, especially after the marriage! He'd borrowed everything from his friends the week before to pay the press off for another car accident. "We used a lot of the money to pay back his friends. You know he's had three car accidents this year! Isn't he so hardcore?" Lydia had this dreamy look in her eyes that disgusted Lizzie. Now convinced that she'd learned everything she could from her youngest sister, she was left to ponder his motives.

'If he had a debt to everyone... he wouldn't have had enough money to support Lydia. Besides, they were already married at that point so it wasn't as if he could have prevented it from happening!' Lizzie thought in a hurry, and she smiled. 'He wanted George to start off with a clean slate.' She felt giddy with elation, so proud of Will. She couldn't believe that at one point she thought he was selfish. Why, he was the most unselfish person she knew! Who else would help Lydia, of all people?

No one had long to wait before the news that Wickham was needed back again in the Capital came around. Lizzie stayed wisely in her room, but she could hear Lydia's wailing that she belonged with her husband.

"You've done this to yourself, _young _lady! You will stay here and finish high school! And since you think this is so unfair, you'll be working for your own keep in this house! You seem to think that life's a game, don't you? Well, you'll be paying rent since you seem to think you're such an adult. When you graduate, then you may live with your husband. But only then!" Lizzie then heard her mother's shrieks coinciding with Lydia's. "Don't bother to change my mind, both of you! It won't happen, not this time!"

Lizzie smiled into her pillow, though her heart ached for Will, she felt as if things were starting to get right.

***

Though Lydia remained in her room all the next day, Mrs. Bennet was not to be shaken. "He'll change his mind," she repeated firmly. "He always does." Their mother went about the house, cleaning happily, and it was around three o'clock when her friend Priscilla called her and a giant screech came from her bedroom.

Mrs. Bennet rushed down the stairs and to the kitchen, where a bored Lizzie and Jane were playing a game of war.

"Charlie has come back to Cape Cod!"


End file.
